mispronounce

American

[mis-pruh-nouns] / ˌmɪs prəˈnaʊns /

verb (used with or without object)

mispronounced, mispronouncing

to pronounce incorrectly.

mispronounce British

/ ˌmɪsprəˈnaʊns, ˌmɪsprəˌnʌnsɪˈeɪʃən /

verb

to pronounce (a word) wrongly

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

mispronouncer noun
mispronunciation noun

Etymology

Origin of mispronounce

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

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.

Yet audience members would gladly correct any comic who’d assume the restaurant was Mexican, or mispronounce the word “pupusas,” as Battle sheepishly recalled during his own set.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 19, 2025

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

And here’s a good one: What happens when you mispronounce a menu term?

From Seattle Times • Jun. 4, 2023

Again, while others had great difficulty in understanding me, I couldn’t hear myself mispronounce words.

From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers

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