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
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are misleadingprogressive
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is misleadingprogressive
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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:
The technology might still eliminate jobs, manipulate or mislead users, or automate away forms of expression that used to be exclusively human.
From Slate ● Sep. 9, 2026
The change could mislead consumer, marketing and aviation experts said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
"If fabricated studies make their way into the evidence base, they can mislead real scientists and ultimately slow progress for patients. That's why it's vital we get ahead of this problem."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026
An external review found multiple failings, with Ockenden saying the case was "compounded by a systemic cover-up and investigations designed to mislead".
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 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
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
The Council of Science Editors’ recommendations on publication ethics say ghost authorship is “ethically unacceptable” because it misleads readers about potential conflicts of interest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
“Attempting to classify foods as unhealthy simply because they are processed, or demonizing food by ignoring its full nutrient content, misleads consumers and exacerbates health disparities,” Gallo said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2025
The ASA is cracking down on online ads like these, saying their structure misleads customers.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2024
It is the strong craving we have for gratifications of sense and of worldly desire that misleads us in life.
From The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I by Marcus Dods
In March, a jury in New Mexico ordered the Facebook and Instagram owner to pay $375 million after finding it had misled the public about the safety of its platforms for children.
From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026
People who bought certain iPhone models can start submitting claims to get paid as part of a $250-million settlement resolving legal claims that Apple misled consumers about the capabilities of its artificial-intelligence-powered features.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Callaghan “had no idea it had anything to do with crypto, he was completely misled by Hunter Biden,” Mitchell Jackson, a representative for Callaghan and other popular social-media figures, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
A federal lawsuit filed in Louisiana in 2021 alleged that Heineken USA misled buyers by marketing Heineken 0.0 as alcohol-free, despite having less than 0.03% ABV.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
Many said they felt they had been misled by the Japanese government during the disaster, so they refused to trust the government’s assurances that the towns were safe after the cleanup.
From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland
Schellekens said the blanket labels could be misleading.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026
His lawyer Nikheel Nambiar told AFP he denied those claims and that allegations of influence-peddling for Beijing were "false and misleading".
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
But an Instagram page dedicated to monitoring inaccurate or misleading race times posted by influencers published a picture which appeared to show Sun on a bicycle between the 35km and and 40km marks.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
But that is a “very misleading statistic,” he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
But that neat triangle—already more of a rectangle— is completely misleading.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
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.
