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
-
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
-
have been mismatchingperfect progressive
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has been mismatchingperfect progressive
Past
-
mismatchedsimple
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had mismatchedperfect
-
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:
The mismatch in priorities isn’t new, and the last attempt at hashing out differences over AI is a cautionary tale.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
The game should have been a mismatch, but what I missed is that the Rams might not have placed much importance in it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 13, 2026
But the conflict is a mismatch, with the $31 trillion US economy roughly 13 times larger than Canada's, raising questions about the limits of Prime Minister Mark Carney's defiance.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
Ireland managed just 10 boundaries in their innings and, to highlight the mismatch in the teams, Bouchier struck nine alone in her knock.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 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
“For example, compaction summaries included instructions to invent missing historical data without disclosing it and to hide mismatches in source versions,” wrote OpenAI.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 17, 2026
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
Postal Service records and mismatches render a voter inactive and unable to vote until they provide adequate information.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
Asian countries are limited in how much U.S. energy they can process by infrastructure mismatches.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 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
The film stars James Rottger and Elle Watson as Cameron and Eilidh - mismatched flatmates who face the prospect of parenthood after a one-night stand.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
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
Servers emerge from the kitchen carrying mismatched plates of chilaquiles and, on weekends, bowls of hominy-packed, spicy menudo soup that’s spent at least six hours on the stove.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Seeing Dodgers players wearing red gloves, mismatched undershirts, and other non-team colors bothers me more than it should.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
I knew what enigma meant—my mother often said I was one, especially when I dipped fried eggs in grape jelly or deliberately wore mismatched socks.
From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin
"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
“The mismatching of financial market pricing and economic reality is both stark and stretched,” Bennett said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 6, 2023
Ms Angell did forensic work into the mismatching thread and bullet holes in Ms Bullwinkel's nurse's uniform.
From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2019
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.
