miss
verb (used with object)
to fail to hit or strike.
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miss
1 American
[mis]
/ mɪs /
verb (used with object)
-
misses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
missed,
past participle, past
-
missing
present participle
-
to fail to hit or strike.
to miss a target.
-
to fail to encounter, meet, catch, etc..
to miss a train.
-
to fail to take advantage of.
to miss a chance.
-
to fail to be present at or for.
to miss a day of school.
-
to notice the absence or loss of.
When did you first miss your wallet?
-
to regret the absence or loss of.
I miss you all dreadfully.
-
to escape or avoid.
He just missed being caught.
-
to fail to perceive or understand.
to miss the point of a remark.
verb (used without object)
-
misses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
missed,
past participle, past
-
missing
present participle
-
to fail to hit something.
-
to fail of effect or success; be unsuccessful.
noun
-
a failure to hit something.
-
a failure of any kind.
-
an omission.
-
a misfire.
verb phrase
-
miss out on to fail to take advantage of, experience, etc..
You missed out on a great opportunity.
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miss out to omit; leave out.
idioms
miss
2
American
[mis]
/ mɪs /
noun
-
misses
plural
-
(initial capital letter) a title of respect for an unmarried woman, conventionally prefixed to her name or to the name of that which she represents.
Miss Mary Jones; Miss Sweden.
-
(used by itself, as a term of address, especially to a young woman).
Miss, please bring me some ketchup.
-
(initial capital letter) a title prefixed to a mock surname used to represent a particular attribute of the person, especially one excessively prominent.
Miss Innocent; Miss Congeniality.
-
a young unmarried woman; girl.
a radiant miss of 18 or so.
-
misses,
-
a range of sizes, chiefly from 6 to 20, for garments that fit women of average height and build.
-
the department or section of a store where these garments are sold.
-
a garment in this size range.
-
miss.
3
American
abbreviation
-
mission.
-
missionary.
Miss.
4
American
abbreviation
miss
1
British
/ mɪs /
verb
-
to fail to reach, hit, meet, find, or attain (some specified or implied aim, goal, target, etc)
-
(tr) to fail to attend or be present for
to miss a train
to miss an appointment
-
(tr) to fail to see, hear, understand, or perceive
to miss a point
-
(tr) to lose, overlook, or fail to take advantage of
to miss an opportunity
-
(tr) to leave out; omit
to miss an entry in a list
-
(tr) to discover or regret the loss or absence of
he missed his watch
she missed him
-
(tr) to escape or avoid (something, esp a danger), usually narrowly
he missed death by inches
-
to lose an opportunity
noun
-
a failure to reach, hit, meet, find, etc
-
informal to avoid (something)
give the lecture a miss
give the pudding a miss
Miss.
2
British
abbreviation
Miss
3
British
/ mɪs /
noun
miss
4
British
/ mɪs /
noun
miss
More Idioms
Usage
What is a basic definition of miss? Miss means to fail to hit something, to fail to meet something, or to feel sadness over the absence or loss of something. The word miss has several other senses as a verb and a noun. To miss something is to fail to hit or strike something, as with an arrow missing a target. If a runaway vehicle misses a stop sign, then it doesn’t smash into it.
- Real-life examples: If you throw a basketball to your friend and they don’t catch it, the ball misses. When a baseball player misses a baseball with their bat, they try to hit the ball with the bat but fail to. A bowling ball that doesn’t knock down any pins has missed them.
- Used in a sentence: Luckily, the falling tree branch missed me by a few inches and landed on the ground instead of on my head.
- Used in a sentence: All of his attempts to throw the basketball into the hoop were misses.
- Real-life examples: If you are late meeting up with a friend, they might leave and you’ll miss them. If you take too long to get to the bus stop, the bus will leave without you and you’ll miss it.
- Used in a sentence: She missed the morning train and had to wait until the next one came.
- Real-life examples: Parents often miss their children after they move out of the house. Everybody misses loved ones who have died. A person may miss a favorite food that is no longer being made.
- Used in a sentence: The freezing man missed the heat of Florida.
Gender
See Ms.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misssimple
-
missessimple
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have missedperfect
-
has missedperfect
-
am missingprogressive
-
are missingprogressive
-
is missingprogressive
-
have been missingperfect progressive
-
has been missingperfect progressive
Past
-
missedsimple
-
had missedperfect
-
was missingprogressive
-
were missingprogressive
-
had been missingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of miss1
First recorded before 900; Middle English missen, mis(e), Old English missan; cognate with Old Frisian missa, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Old High German missen, Old Norse missa “to fail to hit or reach”
Origin of miss2
First recorded in 1600–10; short for mistress
Explanation
To miss is to fail to do or sense something, or to be without. If you miss all your free throws, your basketball team probably won't miss you if you skip a game. The verb form of miss stems from the Old English missan “fail to hit what was aimed at,” while the noun form of miss, meaning a term of honor to a young woman is just the abbreviated form of mistress, which used to be a title of respect. You might not miss the days when every unmarried woman had to be called "Miss."
Vocabulary lists containing miss
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"In Response to Executive Order 9066"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Feeling control isn’t the same thing as having control, and it’s a distinction that we miss all too often when we talk about fertility preservation.
From Slate ● Aug. 29, 2026
Don’t miss: ‘Something snapped inside him’: My contractor boyfriend of 2 years dumped me.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
The miss to expectations reflects higher operating expenses, with Genesis’s digital transformation project, higher brand costs and meter-cost transfer all contributing, analyst Andrew Harvey-Green says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
But in a post on social media, she said she will be taking a break from competition to work on her technique, meaning she will miss March's World Championships in Finland.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
“I miss him,” I say, my voice a whisper.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
“But if you get hit with a hurricane and an asteroid in the same period, we’ll miss. And that’s OK.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
“Second of all, his defense, his ability to jump, his ability to shoot — together, we were great I think. Obviously one guy I miss. We’ll get some dinner now that we’re in L.A.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2025
"Olise is a massive miss. What he's doing now for Bayern Munich and the quality of player that he is," former Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey said on Sky Sports.
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2024
“But at the same time, there’s a lot of things I think we’re going to miss. Richard offered the Latino community political power that it never had.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2024
“I was raised in the country, miss. Too much time inside makes me feel poorly. I like walking in the fresh air, even if it is cold.”
From "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson
The cases against Proper, 19, remains ongoing, as do the cases against the two other alleged co-conspirators: Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Miss., and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
Preston Arrington began renting land from his father in Sunflower County, Miss., a quarter-century ago to grow cotton and grains — becoming the fourth generation of his family to choose a career in the fields.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
Eleven-year-old Margot “Meg” Lefleur, one of the two narrators of Kathryn Stockett’s historical novel “The Calamity Club,” has been a resident of an orphanage in Oxford, Miss., since 1931—two miserable years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
As a young lawyer, my formative experiences were in Biloxi, Miss., representing families who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
“Your friend, little Swiss Miss. Don’t let me find her in here again. Ever.”
From "When You Reach Me" by Rebecca Stead
Miss Yodle, the family’s uptight neighbor, styles her hair “in tight little braids twisted around her skull, giving her head the air of a victim.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Broadcast Management Group said Miss USA “has not met its contractual obligations to BMG” and planned to take legal action, according to emails viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
The owners of Miss Universe parted ways with the former Miss USA chief, Laylah Loiczly, last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Still, his ambitions may be bigger than the country’s appetite for Miss USA.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
“Why, this is wonderful,” Miss Lacey said as she flipped through a few of the pages I’d marked.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
The swings and misses are there for all to see, every day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
"He misses his family... but also his friends, his country of birth," Owens explained.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
She later writes that she misses the days when she and Trump would talk on the phone “about everything and nothing.”
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
If I neglect it for six months, it will not announce that it misses me.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
Windy is in the front and misses it all, which is a relief because she would have said something or asked, What are you doing?
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
His maiden ATP final appearance against Buse comes before next month's US Open, where he just missed out on being seeded.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
She said: "At this point, and we will keep it under review, there is nothing to suggest that there have been any missed opportunities over the years."
From BBC ● Aug. 28, 2026
An immigration judge issued the British conservative commentator a deportation order on July 22 after he missed an immigration hearing, according to DHS.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Some survivors of the deadly floods on the Nepal-China border ran for their lives, others narrowly missed disaster, but all were eyewitnesses to a major calamity and its aftermath.
From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026
Either you made the shot, or you missed.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
In an area home to vast energy infrastructure projects, Nepal's disaster authority added 933 hydropower workers to a missing persons list already including trekkers and pilgrims to Tibet's sacred Mount Kailash.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
The number of people missing in catastrophic floods in Nepal and China rose to nearly 3,000, roughly a third of them workers stationed at power projects in Nepal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
China's state Xinhua news agency said Saturday that 554 people were missing, and seven people had died.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
More than 500 foreign tourists, including 65 Americans, are also among the missing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026
I understand, in this moment, that he tricked Gran and me into missing one of my most important moments.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
