misname

American

[mis-neym] / mɪsˈneɪm /

verb (used with object)

to name incorrectly or wrongly; miscall.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

Future

Etymology

Origin of misname

First recorded in 1475–85; mis- ¹ + name

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:

misname misnames misnamed misnaming

And your mother-in-law’s sensitivity does not entitle her to misname you.

From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2022

Also a nice, new building is going up next door to it on that little, secret, walled jungle that Ely Crouch used to misname his garden.

From From a Bench in Our Square by Samuel Hopkins Adams

“To misname me would do you no good and me no harm,” replied the Jew gravely.

From The Pirate City An Algerine Tale by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

I had hoped, from the name, or rather misname, of the conveyance, to gladden my eyes with the sight of something civilized.

From A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53 by Ellen Clacy

"If you call it heartache, you will not misname it," said Catharine, with a sigh, and proceeded to speak in a very serious tone.

From The Fair Maid of Perth Or, St. Valentine's Day by Sir Walter Scott

So to repeat: Vance misnames Alex Padilla during a press conference.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2025

With authority and certitude, she misplaces geographical landmarks, mispronounces French words, and misnames the heroes of history.

From Time Magazine Archive

This my swashbuckler misnames sentimentality—and thus I feel that he always tends to admire the wrong qualities, because he condones even what he calls sentimentality in one whom he chooses to admire.

From The Silent Isle by Arthur Christopher Benson

He misnames the qualities of persons or things, and gives bad appellations or epithets to good or indifferent qualities.

From Talkers With Illustrations by John Bate

Signor Pessina, however, had provided him with the address of a society which operated something that the doctor agrees to term Kabbalah, after the same manner that he misnames most subjects.

From Devil-Worship in France or The Question of Lucifer by Arthur Edward Waite

Cardi B, who also wore a towering black turban, misnamed her designer Monday in an interview with Vogue.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2024

Warnings contained contradictory information and sometimes misnamed districts.

From BBC ● Apr. 5, 2024

Second, SAF are misnamed, as there is no evidence that enough fuel can be sustainably produced in the quantities needed.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 12, 2023

Correction: An earlier version of the story misnamed the Utah Division of Water Rights.

From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2022

The thesis is misnamed, because, as it is usually formulated, Duhem did not hold it and Quine abandoned it, but it is the fundamental conceptual underpinning of much modern history and philosophy of science.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

When Alamillo saw the clip of Vance misnaming Padilla, he immediately thought of Ricardo “Pancho” Gonzalez.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2025

I called these men by their given name, never making the mistake of misnaming them Paul.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2024

The usage infantilizes both the reader and the book’s subject, adding to a centuries-long history of disrespectful misnaming — a history that White himself contested by entitling his autobiography “A Man Called White.”

From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2022

I think we have a habit of misnaming political experiences in ways that help us metabolize loss.

From Slate ● Sep. 21, 2020

“I have such a stupid habit of misnaming people.”

From Freaks on the Fells Three Months' Rustication by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023