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misremember

American  
[mis-ri-mem-ber] / ˌmɪs rɪˈmɛm bər /

verb (used with or without object)

  1. to remember incorrectly.

  2. to fail to remember; forget.


Etymology

Origin of misremember

First recorded in 1525–35; mis- 1 + remember

Explanation

When you misremember, you don't remember accurately. If you recall meeting your best friend in kindergarten, but you actually met in second grade, you misremember the way the two of you met. When someone misremembers your name, they might call you "Steve" until you correct them, and if you misremember the plot of a book, your English teacher won't appreciate the book report you write about it. Misremember uses the common "bad" or "wrong" prefix, mis-, combined here with remember, from its Latin source rememorari, "recall to mind."

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Vocabulary lists containing misremember

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.

What we tend to do is to misremember the length, based on the bar's size, recalling longer bars as shorter and shorter bars as longer.

From Science Daily • Apr. 24, 2024

Self-reported data can sometimes be unreliable because people may misremember, potentially exaggerating or downplaying their experience.

From Scientific American • Oct. 25, 2023

People sometimes use poor reasoning, misremember, or even lie.

From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022

When it comes to chronic pain, that means the more pain a person lives with, the more likely they are to misremember it as being worse than it was.

From Washington Post • Apr. 30, 2022

At first I think I must have misremembered it, but how could I misremember a sound I'd heard one hundred, two hundred, five hundred times in my life?

From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse

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