miscarriage
Americannoun
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the expulsion of a fetus before it is viable, especially between the third and seventh months of pregnancy; spontaneous abortion.
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failure to attain the just, right, or desired result.
a miscarriage of justice.
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failure of something sent, as a letter, to reach its destination.
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Chiefly British. transportation of goods not in accordance with the contract of shipment.
noun
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spontaneous expulsion of a fetus from the womb, esp prior to the 20th week of pregnancy
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an act of mismanagement or failure
a miscarriage of justice
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the failure of freight to reach its destination
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The premature, spontaneous expulsion of the products of pregnancy from the uterus, usually in the first trimester.
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Also called spontaneous abortion
Discover More
Generally, a miscarriage is a failure to achieve a desired end, as in a miscarriage of justice.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of miscarriage
Explanation
A miscarriage, in medical terms, is the birth of a fetus before it's able to live independently of its mother. In other words, a miscarriage is the abrupt, early end of a pregnancy. The medical sense of miscarriage, which usually describes the very early loss of a pregnancy (later losses are often called stillbirths), is actually among the newer uses of the word. In the sixteenth century, a miscarriage was almost always a "mistake or error" or sometimes "misbehavior." Today, when something doesn't go the way it was supposed to, you might call it a miscarriage.
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:
"When I did have the miscarriage, I kind of was already mentally prepared because of the data I saw."
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
The pair never had their own children — the singer suffered a miscarriage at age 39 — but experienced “no shortage of children,” she told the Guardian in 2012.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Women aged 49 and over had double the risk of miscarriage than those aged 35 to 40, and were also less likely to get pregnant.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
Among them was a pregnant mother whose toddler was hospitalized; she said she caught his bacterial infection and had a miscarriage at 20 weeks.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
I did not know she had been trying to have a baby since the last miscarriage almost six years ago.
From "Purple Hibiscus" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
In 2008, one sister triplet was miscarried, while two of her sisters lived "for a significant amount of time", but NUH registered all three babies as miscarriages.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
"We are talking about some very heavy things such as miscarriages and there are moments where we're talking about personal experiences," says Khalid.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
Following a number of other controversial executions and a series of miscarriages of justice it was permanently abolished for murder in 1969.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
David and Ally had always wanted children but after Ally went through several painful miscarriages, they decided to adopt.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
This house and garden brought back the sweet man she had begun to love after their wedding, before the pregnancies, the miscarriages, the moves, and the money worries.
From "You Bring the Distant Near" by Mitali Perkins
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.
