MIA
missing in action.
MIA
1 Americanplural
MIA's, MIAs-
missing in action.
-
a soldier declared missing in action.
M.I.A.
2
American
abbreviation
-
Master of International Affairs.
-
Military. missing in action.
MIA
British
abbreviation
-
military missing in action: officially unaccounted for following combat
-
(in Australia) Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area
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.
As a result, history and original meaning were MIA in a dispute when they should have been front and center.
From Slate • Dec. 11, 2025
There are a few characters out of the Scott drama who are MIA in real time, though we see and hear from them in archival video—Keith Olbermann, for instance, who appeared with Scott on “SportsNight.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 9, 2025
When they went out, the singer and her siblings would blast out hits by Coldplay, MIA, Lily Allen and Daughter.
From BBC • Apr. 5, 2025
Feinstein was MIA from the Senate for months this year with a case of shingles; it took the New York Times to report she’d also had encephalitis.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 28, 2023
One MIA driver told the story of having come upon an elderly woman hobbling along the road.
From "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" by Phillip Hoose
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.
