misunderstanding
Americannoun
-
failure to understand correctly; mistake as to meaning or intent.
- Synonyms:
- misconception, error, misapprehension
-
a disagreement or quarrel.
- Synonyms:
- dissension, difficulty, difference, discord
- Antonyms:
- concord
noun
-
a failure to understand properly
-
a disagreement
Other Word Forms
- misunderstandingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of misunderstanding
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English; mis- 1 + understanding
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.
Many of Lam’s forays into modernism, into the 1940s—dependent, almost to the point of parody, on Picasso—are schematic misunderstandings of Cubism’s spatial complexities.
“And those coded notes you and your sister received at the Shoulder of Mutton? That was all some sort of misunderstanding?”
From Literature
This misunderstanding is pushing policy in the wrong direction.
Douglas told police there had been a misunderstanding and that he wasn’t a danger to himself or others.
From Los Angeles Times
This dynamic points to a more basic misunderstanding about what institutions actually are.
From Salon
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.
