mishap
Americannoun
-
mishaps
plural
noun
-
an unfortunate accident
-
bad luck
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of mishap
Middle English word dating back to 1300–50; see origin at mis- 1, hap 1
Explanation
Don’t cry over spilled milk, it is just a minor mishap — a misfortune. If the surgeon operates on the wrong leg when you go in for knee surgery? Now, that’s a mishap to get upset about. You might assume that hap is short for happening, but it is actually an Old Norse word for "luck." So with mis ("bad") in front of it, it literally means “bad luck.” Mishaps can be accidents of great consequence or minimal consequence. People often say that an event went off “without a mishap,” meaning that it went smoothly. Hopefully this will be the case if you ever get knee surgery.
Vocabulary lists containing mishap
Power Prefix: mis-
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Essential Academic Vocabulary for High School Students, List 3
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ACT Vocabulary List
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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:
On Thursday, Anthropic reported a similar mishap whereby a setup error allowed its Claude models to reach the open internet during safety evaluations and compromise the infrastructure of three real-world organizations.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 2, 2026
Shortly after he and Adrian reminisce about the mishap in Munich, McElwee continues his narration.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
Kashani said viral mishap videos can distort public perception of the technology’s actual safety record.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 5, 2026
Despite the mishap, Mercedes officials, confident in their new talent, announced him as their newest driver the next day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
I'm very sorry to hear about your mishap, but I hope you're not too put out to be spending the night here in Moscombe.'
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
"Wooden boats have served their time, but they cannot be the future of water transport in Nigeria. The tragic mishaps we continue to witness are a direct consequence of the continued reliance on unsafe vessels."
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
There are measures the company has adopted over the years to bolster its platform against myriad vulnerabilities: adopting cybersecurity programs to preempt automated bot accounts, and expanding protections for music festival mishaps.
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026
Any one of those mishaps could sink one or more European economies—and, in the case of the Iran war energy-price spikes, they might.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
A few unnecessarily curt speech interruptions threatened the calm, but mainly, this was a smoothly run machine of a show, devoid of mishaps.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026
Similar mishaps have occurred in groves sprayed a month earlier, and residues have been found in the peel of oranges six months after treatment with standard dosages.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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.
