misunderstand
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to take (words, statements, etc.) in a wrong sense; understand wrongly.
- Synonyms:
- misinterpret, misapprehend, misconstrue
-
to fail to understand or interpret rightly the words or behavior of.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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misunderstandsimple
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misunderstandssimple
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have misunderstoodperfect
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has misunderstoodperfect
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am misunderstandingprogressive
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are misunderstandingprogressive
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is misunderstandingprogressive
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have been misunderstandingperfect progressive
-
has been misunderstandingperfect progressive
Past
-
misunderstoodsimple
-
had misunderstoodperfect
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was misunderstandingprogressive
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were misunderstandingprogressive
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had been misunderstandingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misunderstand
First recorded in 1150–1200, misunderstand is from the Middle English word misunderstanden. See mis- 1, understand
Explanation
To misunderstand is to incorrectly interpret what someone means. If you misunderstand the directions for taking your medication, you might end up feeling loopy or passing out. When a football player misunderstands the coach's instructions, he might make the wrong play. If a baker misunderstands what you ask him to write on your best friend's birthday cake, he might misspell her name. The verb misunderstand adds the "bad" or "wrong" prefix mis- to understand, from an Old English root, understandan, that literally means "stand in the midst of."
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:
We also discovered—without too much surprise—that he often seems to fundamentally misunderstand the works he treasures most deeply.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
What do audiences underestimate or misunderstand about what it takes to make a comedy?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
“People are desperate for indicators so they look at VIX and they misunderstand it,” says Scott Nations, president of volatility index developer Nations Indexes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Kaufman acknowledged mistakes can occur, but suggested many complaints arise when parents complete age checks on behalf of their children or misunderstand the process.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
Up until now, I’ve largely assumed that all of my interpretations of Hideo’s words have been exaggerated on my part, but it’s pretty hard to misunderstand this statement.
From "Warcross" by Marie Lu
That is because Kagan believes the question itself misunderstands the Fourth Amendment.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2026
De Zylva argues this misunderstands the point: "The purpose of the green belt isn't to be green per se, it is to be a buffer to prevent sprawl."
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
“This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site,” said Jose Castañeda, a Google spokesman, in a statement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2026
José Castañeda, a spokesman for Google, which owns YouTube, said they plan to appeal: “This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
The evidence is clear: not only does della Porta echo Garzoni’s words, but he misunderstands some of the experiments he claims to have performed, and so misreports them.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
The KC said the 16-year-old was "not a misunderstood angel" but argued that Amen was "hunting" his client.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Being gay and misunderstood, with the unacknowledged pain of it kept inside, was quite literally eating me alive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
John Quincy Adams reminds us that leadership can be ahead of its time, misunderstood in the moment yet essential in hindsight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
But for a film to become a misunderstood classic, it has to be worth paying any attention to in the first place.
From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026
Except for the odd ones about television and bravery, they had seemed easy, but perhaps he was such a strange bird that he had misunderstood everything.
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
“From that point of view, it becomes a more serious story, and it goes beyond misunderstanding to something more worrying.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
To some, it may feel like Araki is flattening complex social mores and misunderstanding the anxieties behind this era of semi-celibacy.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
Unlike the incident involving OpenAI's technology, Anthropic's models had access to the internet "due to a misunderstanding between us and our evaluation partner," called Irregular, Anthropic said in a blog post.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Mark Joseph Stern: There has been a lot of misunderstanding about exactly what the liberal justices did in B.P.J., and I want to clear that up.
From Slate ● Jul. 15, 2026
They tease me for being a food snob, an easy misunderstanding to play along with, but I'm not that picky about what I eat.
From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour
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.
