miss
verb (used with object)
to fail to hit or strike.
miss
1 American
[mis]
/ mɪs /
verb (used with object)
-
misses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
missed,
past participle, past
-
missing
present participle
-
to fail to hit or strike.
to miss a target.
-
to fail to encounter, meet, catch, etc..
to miss a train.
-
to fail to take advantage of.
to miss a chance.
-
to fail to be present at or for.
to miss a day of school.
-
to notice the absence or loss of.
When did you first miss your wallet?
-
to regret the absence or loss of.
I miss you all dreadfully.
-
to escape or avoid.
He just missed being caught.
-
to fail to perceive or understand.
to miss the point of a remark.
verb (used without object)
-
misses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
missed,
past participle, past
-
missing
present participle
-
to fail to hit something.
-
to fail of effect or success; be unsuccessful.
noun
-
a failure to hit something.
-
a failure of any kind.
-
an omission.
-
a misfire.
verb phrase
-
miss out on to fail to take advantage of, experience, etc..
You missed out on a great opportunity.
-
miss out to omit; leave out.
idioms
miss
2
American
[mis]
/ mɪs /
noun
-
misses
plural
-
(initial capital letter) a title of respect for an unmarried woman, conventionally prefixed to her name or to the name of that which she represents.
Miss Mary Jones; Miss Sweden.
-
(used by itself, as a term of address, especially to a young woman).
Miss, please bring me some ketchup.
-
(initial capital letter) a title prefixed to a mock surname used to represent a particular attribute of the person, especially one excessively prominent.
Miss Innocent; Miss Congeniality.
-
a young unmarried woman; girl.
a radiant miss of 18 or so.
-
misses,
-
a range of sizes, chiefly from 6 to 20, for garments that fit women of average height and build.
-
the department or section of a store where these garments are sold.
-
a garment in this size range.
-
miss.
3
American
abbreviation
-
mission.
-
missionary.
Miss.
4
American
abbreviation
miss
1
British
/ mɪs /
verb
-
to fail to reach, hit, meet, find, or attain (some specified or implied aim, goal, target, etc)
-
(tr) to fail to attend or be present for
to miss a train
to miss an appointment
-
(tr) to fail to see, hear, understand, or perceive
to miss a point
-
(tr) to lose, overlook, or fail to take advantage of
to miss an opportunity
-
(tr) to leave out; omit
to miss an entry in a list
-
(tr) to discover or regret the loss or absence of
he missed his watch
she missed him
-
(tr) to escape or avoid (something, esp a danger), usually narrowly
he missed death by inches
-
to lose an opportunity
noun
-
a failure to reach, hit, meet, find, etc
-
informal to avoid (something)
give the lecture a miss
give the pudding a miss
Miss.
2
British
abbreviation
Miss
3
British
/ mɪs /
noun
miss
4
British
/ mɪs /
noun
miss
More Idioms
Usage
What is a basic definition of miss? Miss means to fail to hit something, to fail to meet something, or to feel sadness over the absence or loss of something. The word miss has several other senses as a verb and a noun. To miss something is to fail to hit or strike something, as with an arrow missing a target. If a runaway vehicle misses a stop sign, then it doesn’t smash into it.
- Real-life examples: If you throw a basketball to your friend and they don’t catch it, the ball misses. When a baseball player misses a baseball with their bat, they try to hit the ball with the bat but fail to. A bowling ball that doesn’t knock down any pins has missed them.
- Used in a sentence: Luckily, the falling tree branch missed me by a few inches and landed on the ground instead of on my head.
- Used in a sentence: All of his attempts to throw the basketball into the hoop were misses.
- Real-life examples: If you are late meeting up with a friend, they might leave and you’ll miss them. If you take too long to get to the bus stop, the bus will leave without you and you’ll miss it.
- Used in a sentence: She missed the morning train and had to wait until the next one came.
- Real-life examples: Parents often miss their children after they move out of the house. Everybody misses loved ones who have died. A person may miss a favorite food that is no longer being made.
- Used in a sentence: The freezing man missed the heat of Florida.
Gender
See Ms.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misssimple
-
missessimple
-
have missedperfect
-
has missedperfect
-
am missingprogressive
-
are missingprogressive
-
is missingprogressive
-
have been missingperfect progressive
-
has been missingperfect progressive
Past
-
missedsimple
-
had missedperfect
-
was missingprogressive
-
were missingprogressive
-
had been missingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of miss1
First recorded before 900; Middle English missen, mis(e), Old English missan; cognate with Old Frisian missa, Middle Low German, Middle Dutch, Old High German missen, Old Norse missa “to fail to hit or reach”
Origin of miss2
First recorded in 1600–10; short for mistress
Explanation
To miss is to fail to do or sense something, or to be without. If you miss all your free throws, your basketball team probably won't miss you if you skip a game. The verb form of miss stems from the Old English missan “fail to hit what was aimed at,” while the noun form of miss, meaning a term of honor to a young woman is just the abbreviated form of mistress, which used to be a title of respect. You might not miss the days when every unmarried woman had to be called "Miss."
Vocabulary lists containing miss
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"In Response to Executive Order 9066"
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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:
“I do believe we miss out on things when we’re not allowing ourselves to have some of these spontaneous interactions.”
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2026
That’s because all those figures used in brain-disease calculations are based on death certificates, and it turns out most death certificates miss the disease.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
Now that it’s disappearing, we kind of miss it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
The pair were the only two members of the England squad to miss training on Monday morning, with the players following their own individual programmes.
From BBC ● Sep. 28, 2026
“George, you’re a fool. You’ve got to get going. You’ll miss the land rush.”
From "Will’s Race for Home" by Jewell Parker Rhodes
“There’s always something you miss. Man, I love practice, you know what I’m saying? I bring the juice during practice.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
“But if you get hit with a hurricane and an asteroid in the same period, we’ll miss. And that’s OK.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026
“That’s what I miss. Being surprised by movies.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2024
“I feel like I’m yards after the catch and just being able to make people miss. Just turn good plays into great plays,” Bowers said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 29, 2024
“There ain’t nothing here, miss. You sure you want out?”
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
His attorneys, however, note that the envelopes were postmarked in Jackson, Miss., not Colorado.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
The cases against Proper, 19, remains ongoing, as do the cases against the two other alleged co-conspirators: Daniel K. Eskridge, 32, of Kidder, Miss., and Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, 31, of Omaha.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
That includes Hawthorne, Calif., Bastrop and McGregor in Texas, Memphis, Tenn., and Southaven, Miss. Its workers—including hourly blue-collar workers—receive stock options, which has allowed them to share in the company’s success.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Preston Arrington began renting land from his father in Sunflower County, Miss., a quarter-century ago to grow cotton and grains — becoming the fourth generation of his family to choose a career in the fields.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
“Forgive me for asking this, Miss. I wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important, but...well, you wouldn’t happen to be lying to me, would you?”
From "The Mysterious Benedict Society" by Trenton Lee Stewart
After college, I was cast as one of the leads in the 2006 off-Broadway production of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
I was asked to write a Miss Marple short story for a collection in 2022.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
How did the Miss Marple project come about?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
Your Miss Marple was influenced by your own grandmother.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
“Miss Lacey and Miss Adams organize the shows for us, and they simply do wonders with the themes,” he went on.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Sometimes it misses grief, trauma, a broken relationship, poor sleep or a life lived out of alignment.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
Yes, Earth has an edge if you leave its surface in the third dimension and head into outer space, but that misses the point.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
But this misses a key cost that is easy to overlook: what economists call the opportunity cost of capital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
But the Independent was cooler on the launch episode as a whole, saying the show "wastes Nigella's prodigious charms and misses chance for a true revamp".
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
“He wants peanut butter. He misses peanut butter. He misses ‘good food’ in general.”
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Panel member Zoë Billingham said: "We will look carefully at what organisations knew, how decisions were made, how agencies worked together, and why opportunities to protect children were missed".
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Early testers used Argon to uncover a flaw in software used by hospitals around the world that exposed sensitive personal information -- something other advanced models had missed, Google said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
"I'm excited to discover what we may have missed before with this new perspective."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
Sales for the second batch “were definitely hurt by the delays. We missed July 4th, which was a key date,” Jonathan Silva said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2026
Once the mail’s sorted, I turn on the computer to check the marina’s email and notice another envelope that I missed, wedged behind the monitor.
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
At the center of Lawrence Osborne’s story of international suspense is Tyler Sedgwick, an aimless American investigator who hopes to find fresh purpose tracking down a rich man’s missing daughter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu said investigators noticed seven bricks had gone missing earlier this year.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
Borthwick, now England head coach, was the only missing representative from the coaches and captains of 12 English, Welsh and Scottish clubs attending the event.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
Researchers at Kyoto University and Hiroshima University set out to address that missing capability.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 29, 2026
I have plenty of reasons to use the internet that don’t involve searching for my missing mother.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
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.
