mispronounce

American  

[mis-pruh-nouns] / ˌmɪs prəˈnaʊns /

verb (used with or without object)

mispronounced, mispronouncing

1. to pronounce incorrectly.

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mispronounce British  

/ ˌmɪsprəˈnaʊns, ˌmɪsprəˌnʌnsɪˈeɪʃən /

verb

1. to pronounce (a word) wrongly

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Other Word Forms

• mispronouncer noun
• mispronunciation noun

Etymology

Origin of mispronounce

First recorded in 1585–95; mis- ¹ + pronounce

Explanation

To mispronounce is to say something incorrectly. It can be pretty awkward when you mispronounce someone's name, especially if you know the person well. Some words are easy to mispronounce, like February, realtor, and meteorology, simply because the sounds don't flow gracefully off the tongue. In other cases, non-native English speakers might mispronounce a word because it doesn't sound at all the way it looks — like tongue, for example. In any case, the verb mispronounce combines the prefix mis-, "wrong or bad," and pronounce, "to utter or say."

Example Sentences

Others tended to mispronounce his actual first name.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 11, 2024

We all stumble over and mispronounce words occasionally.

From Salon • Mar. 7, 2024

The findings also suggest that when listening to children, adult listeners incorporate expectations of how children commonly mispronounce words, such as "weed" for "read."

From Science Daily • Oct. 26, 2023

Last week, Oakland Athletics announcer Glen Kuiper appeared to mispronounce “negro” during the pregame show on NBC Sports California when talking about a visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

From Washington Times • May 9, 2023

It was a short list, but still I managed to mispronounce IBM and assign the wrong gender to both the floor waxer and the typewriter.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

Related Words

• garble