mismatch
Americanverb (used with object)
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mismatches,
present (3rd person singular)
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mismatched,
past participle, past
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mismatching
present participle
noun
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mismatches
plural
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mismatchsimple
-
mismatchessimple
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have mismatchedperfect
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has mismatchedperfect
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am mismatchingprogressive
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are mismatchingprogressive
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is mismatchingprogressive
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have been mismatchingperfect progressive
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has been mismatchingperfect progressive
Past
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mismatchedsimple
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had mismatchedperfect
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was mismatchingprogressive
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were mismatchingprogressive
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had been mismatchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mismatch
Explanation
When two things (or people) don't work well together or correspond with each other, it's a mismatch. If there's a mismatch between the amount of free time you have and the hours of exercise your puppy needs, you might want to hire a dog walker. There might be a mismatch between workers' skills and the actual jobs that are available, or a mismatch between your aunt and uncle, who seem totally unsuited for each other. Mismatch is also a verb that means "match up badly," like when you mismatch your red shirt with your purple pants. Sometimes sports matches or games are called mismatches too, when one team is clearly superior to the other.
Vocabulary lists containing mismatch
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:
It would create a mismatch, since mutual-fund shares are priced only once a day, after the market close, while ETF share prices need to update in real time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
This may point to a mismatch where graduates aren’t building experience in the industries suited to their skills or desires.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
Phenological mismatch is when two organisms that are dependent upon each other appear at the wrong time.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
This term has also revealed the profound philosophical mismatch between the court and the public.
From Slate ● Jul. 29, 2026
That’s because the opening phrase, at the age often, is attached to my father—an obvious mismatch.
From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner
Since the public rolls don’t include voters’ unique identifiers, people at the lab also knew linking them to HSI’s data would produce mismatches — what the staffer called an “ungodly” number of false positives.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
He has the size and physicality of a tight end, which creates mismatches with smaller cornerbacks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
At institutional funds, by comparison, there aren’t frequent windows for investors to exit, which prevents mismatches between their assets and obligations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Semiconductor stocks have historically been cyclical, experiencing boom-and-bust phases from supply-demand mismatches.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
This longing for sincere souls, too, it may well have been which wrung from Clotilda the assertion, that there were mismatches only between souls, not between ranks.
From Hesperus or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days Vol. II A Biography by Jean Paul
What follows — the drained reserves, the mismatched oil, the strained grid and the price we all pay — is the fallout.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
Officials estimate about 5 ballots remain to be counted and 17,650 are waiting to cure a missing or mismatched signature.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2026
Accuracy for the mismatched items dropped to nearly zero in some cases.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 10, 2026
Its officers found a lack of basic bookkeeping records and mismatched information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
“Don’t lose your language,” Señora Oralia said, like words were something that might end up under the bed with mismatched socks and dust bunnies.
From "The First Rule of Punk" by Celia C. Pérez
Retro-themed decor is in, with trees jam-packed full of bold, mismatching decorations, as more people try to recreate a festive season from their childhood.
From BBC ● Dec. 20, 2025
Among them facsimiles of relevant ephemera are bound in mismatching formats: foldout drawings, transparencies, die-cuttings and pamphlets whose archival relevance you must flip through to ascertain.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
"We find that user engagement increases when the national headquarters lead the production of content and the local accounts follow either by tweeting to a matching or mismatching audience, depending on timing in the operation."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2023
Flowers that bloom in early balmy weather run the risk of mismatching with their primary pollinators—such as hummingbirds or bees—which can follow non-climate-dependent cues such as day length.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 22, 2023
But if it should turn out that there is a mismatching, of the nature just described, the conditions can be adjusted if the right means are used.
From Sane Sex Life and Sane Sex Living Some Things That All Sane People Ought to Know About Sex Nature and Sex Functioning; Its Place in the Economy of Life, Its Proper Training and Righteous Exercise by H. W. (Harland William) Long
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.
