misjudge
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
misjudges,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misjudged,
past participle, past
-
misjudging
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misjudgesimple
-
misjudgessimple
-
have misjudgedperfect
-
has misjudgedperfect
-
am misjudgingprogressive
-
are misjudgingprogressive
-
is misjudgingprogressive
-
have been misjudgingperfect progressive
-
has been misjudgingperfect progressive
Past
-
misjudgedsimple
-
had misjudgedperfect
-
was misjudgingprogressive
-
were misjudgingprogressive
-
had been misjudgingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misjudge
Explanation
When you misjudge someone, you have mistaken ideas about what they're like. Politicians who misjudge their constituents aren't often reelected. If you've ever found yourself jumping to conclusions about someone after meeting them once, and then realizing they aren't the way you thought they were, you know what it is to misjudge someone. If a tennis player misjudges her opponent, she's likely to miss an unexpected shot and lose the match. When you judge, you form an opinion about someone or something. Now add the "bad or wrong" prefix mis-, and you've got misjudge.
Vocabulary lists containing misjudge
mis-
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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:
He converted his pole position into a lead at the first corner, only to misjudge the grip available at Turn Two, slide wide, and gift his position to team-mate Oscar Piastri.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
“Families continually misjudge how fast the need for care can expand,” says Farr.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 15, 2026
Without accounting for this process, models may misjudge how carbon moves through the ocean and how the system responds to environmental stress.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 8, 2026
“It’s one thing to make a mistake or misjudge something or be ignorant,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 9, 2025
The stakes are higher of course, play the wrong song in a tavern and people might hiss you, but misjudge an entire town and things can get uglier than that.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
“Legally Blonde” sets up Elle to be underestimated by everybody, including the audience, although the movie drops small hints from the very start that perhaps everyone misjudges her at their peril.
From Salon ● Jul. 6, 2026
This discovery of Orage’s significance in Katherine Mansfield’s life and work matters to scholars, but Ms. Kimber misjudges how much it might engross readers of a biography.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
Mr Walsh told the BBC: "Anyone who believes that this is just a temporary downturn and therefore can be fixed with temporary measures, I'm afraid seriously misjudges what the industry is going through."
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2020
Lippman says customers appreciate those special editions, but if his staff misjudges demand for a certain title, he could be stuck with thousands of paper doorstops.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 19, 2017
Frederick takes one look at Powell and misjudges him as a simpleton.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
But the West has misjudged adversaries before, and Mr. Putin may have his own calculations that look different from inside the Kremlin.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
“We clearly misjudged how this deal would be viewed by the wider football community and how it might impact them in the future,” a spokesman for the bank said then.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
But the most obvious explanation might be the correct one: Acme’s first adjuster misjudged the damage, possibly with a bias toward keeping costs down for the company.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026
The city, they concluded, had misjudged the situation but had not pursued Gamble from a place of malice.
From Slate ● May 4, 2026
I’d misjudged her because of her small size, but even so, she couldn’t be much older than her early twenties, hardly what I had expected to find.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Though he will be annoyed to get out misjudging the length of spinner Usman Ali as Brook did, Jordan Cox batted with similar restraint and class for his 73.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
Management launched the deal anyway, misjudging how unpopular it would be with clients, then canceled the merger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
By that point, Descovich has expressed regret about possibly misjudging Glaude’s civics teacher, and one candidate in this fantasy gubernatorial race knowingly has capitalized on a manufactured scandal.
From Salon ● Oct. 22, 2025
Then there’s the struggling position players, the Dodgers bringing back ineffective Kiké Hernández while sticking with a slumping Chris Taylor and misjudging former-prospect-turned-suspect Gavin Lux.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2024
He spoiled the effect by leaping into the water to haul the rowing boat onto the sand and misjudging the depth, disappearing up to his neck.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
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.
