mislead
Americanverb (used with object)
-
misleads,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misled,
past participle, past
-
misleading
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
misleads,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misled,
past participle, past
-
misleading
present participle
verb
-
to give false or misleading information to
-
to lead or guide in the wrong direction
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misleadsimple
-
misleadssimple
-
have misledperfect
-
has misledperfect
-
am misleadingprogressive
-
are misleadingprogressive
-
is misleadingprogressive
-
have been misleadingperfect progressive
-
has been misleadingperfect progressive
Past
-
misledsimple
-
had misledperfect
-
was misleadingprogressive
-
were misleadingprogressive
-
had been misleadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mislead
before 1050; Middle English misleden, Old English mislǣdan. See mis- 1, lead 1
Explanation
Use the verb mislead to describe what you're doing when you don't tell the whole truth, or when you let someone believe something false. You mislead someone when you point them in the wrong direction, literally or metaphorically. If you let your cousin think an expensive gift is from you when you actually just sent her a card, you are misleading her. And if you give a tourist directions away from the chain restaurant he's looking for, you are misleading him. Finally, if you think this doesn't really count as lying, you're misleading yourself.
Vocabulary lists containing mislead
Fake It 'Til You Make It: Synonyms for "False"
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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:
Novo Nordisk filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly, accusing it of using outdated studies to mislead consumers about the comparative weight-loss effectiveness of its GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound against Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
“I mean, it rents fine—I don’t want to mislead you. But it certainly could have been better if we had a bigger great room.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
It advised students to "ignore rumours and fake 'paper leak' messages circulating on social media", saying they were designed to "mislead and cause stress".
From BBC ● Jun. 21, 2026
"Without this, we mislead decision makers and potentially lose public trust in our ability to tackle climate change."
From Science Daily ● Jun. 18, 2026
But Dewey, and some of the other investigators, seemed not to credit his story, and behaved as though it were a tale he’d invented to mislead them.
From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote
Ofcom's proposed measures are targeting content which advertises products or services in a way that misleads or tricks viewers.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Aronowitz has called the increased litigation a “con game” that misleads judges, argued that such cases should go before a specialized court and labeled the whole enterprise a “scam.”
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
A California judge ruled that the infamous Kars4Kids jingle misleads donors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
One major reason is fraud, where one party intentionally misleads the other before the agreement is signed, causing the other party to enter the contract based on false information.
From MarketWatch ● May 20, 2026
But here a crazy guide-post at a fork in the road misleads them by pointing in the wrong direction for the Wareham road.
From St. Nicholas Magazine for Boys and Girls, Vol. 8, May 1878, No. 7. An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks by Various
Pirro’s team blamed the Interior Department for the flub, saying it had misled prosecutors about the pool.
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
"Recent reports indicate that the number of Batswana being misled into such arrangements is rising at an alarming rate," the international relations ministry said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 18, 2026
Debt repayments loomed, and Lacaze needed to recapture the trust of lenders, who felt misled about the state of the business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 18, 2026
"The people here had been misled to believe that Ebola ended during previous outbreaks after they burned down the treatment centres," Lukodu said.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
Hooke’s imagery is misleading—and he was misled by it.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Since miscarriage by medical definition is before 20 weeks, the reported rate was misleading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
In March, the jury found Meta violated the state's Unfair Practices Act by misleading consumers about the safety of its products for children.
From Barron's ● Aug. 7, 2026
Fifa said it was a "false and misleading" claim and that a decision on where to hold the final, with the tournament also hosted by Spain and Portugal, will be made "in due course".
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
“While the District’s letter purports to recite other ‘issues of concern,’ it does so in an incomplete and misleading manner — as we set forth in our response to the District.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
She was confirmed again in her view that evil was complicated and misleading.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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.
