misread
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
misreads,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misread,
past participle, past
-
misreading
present participle
-
to read wrongly.
-
to misunderstand or misinterpret.
verb
-
to read incorrectly
-
to misinterpret
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misreadsimple
-
misreadssimple
-
have misreadperfect
-
has misreadperfect
-
am misreadingprogressive
-
are misreadingprogressive
-
is misreadingprogressive
-
have been misreadingperfect progressive
-
has been misreadingperfect progressive
Past
-
misreadsimple
-
had misreadperfect
-
was misreadingprogressive
-
were misreadingprogressive
-
had been misreadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misread
Explanation
To misread something is to read it but understand it in the wrong way. If you misread an article about local politics, you might end up supporting a candidate whose views you don't actually agree with. When you interpret a book, online article, or magazine story incorrectly, you misread it. You can also misread people, when you don't understand how they feel or what they intend: "She tended to misread cranky customers at the coffee shop, thinking they were joking when they were actually angry about something." The prefix mis- means "bad" or "wrong," and read can mean both "comprehend printed matter" or "make out a person's character."
Vocabulary lists containing misread
Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: mis-
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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:
Trying to explain the device, and how her claims of its efficacy were misread by investors and the public, Holmes once again can’t translate her thoughts into words that make sense to Fielder.
From Salon ● Oct. 17, 2026
If you routinely misread or ignore social cues — or tend to act impulsively — that’s a potential red flag.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 25, 2026
Investors misread the mood music on U.S.-Canadian talks, in a big way.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
With rain lashing down in Pennsylvania, both players took two of the next six holes before Leng Jr misread a putt on the 12th to hand his opponent a three-hole lead.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
It seemed I had misread the situation between Sohrab and Ali-Reza, who had acted like friends, but were clearly engaged in some sort of personal vendetta that could only be settled through soccer/non-American football.
From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram
Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Creative Strategies, said that misreads how consumers actually adopt technology.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
Interest rates: Warsh has argued that the Fed misreads inflation by relying on models that treat strong growth as inflationary and on data that lags behind by months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
He misreads my face and says, “Try to remember that tennis is play! Just relax and don’t think.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 15, 2024
It did not help that a couple of misreads meant he did not get to one through ball and Alejandro Garnacho failed to react to one of his.
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2023
Sometimes, her anxiety makes her too sensitive and she misreads people.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
Roblox stock declines as Wall Street believes investors could be misreading the videogame company’s business trajectory.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
But where Hwan’s Christianity is a willful, grotesque misreading of the Bible, Latif actively wrestles with his moral shortcomings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
If that were true, astronomers could have been misreading the supernova data and incorrectly concluding that cosmic expansion was speeding up when it was actually slowing.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 29, 2026
That is a completely ridiculous misreading of this speech.
From Slate ● Apr. 17, 2026
Then, there were indications she was misreading the actual size of the islands.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
