misshapen
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of misshapen
1350–1400; Middle English: past participle of misshape; see -en 3
Explanation
Something that has an abnormal form or shape is misshapen. For example, you might find an old misshapen Barbie, with messy hair and missing limbs, at the bottom of a toy chest. Things that are so malformed or distorted that they look weird or ugly are misshapen. Ballet dancers sometimes end up with misshapen feet after years of cramming them into pointe shoes, and when you grow your own vegetables in your back yard, you often end up with misshapen ones that taste delicious. Misshapen comes from the Old English roots mis, "wrong," and scapan, "to create or form."
Vocabulary lists containing misshapen
Wonder
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Number the Stars
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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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.
In a gangster movie we’d call it muscle: large men with misshapen heads who do the grunt work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Growers are also reporting cucumbers that are coming out misshapen, with some bending back into a spiral.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
The balls of both feet and the ends of both pointer toes had been mashed into misshapen blisters.
From Slate ● Jun. 5, 2026
Some bakers struggled with presentation, giving judges misshapen, funky-looking bakes.
From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2025
With the curlers rolled up tight, her face seemed strangely misshapen, and I wanted to pull away, but she held me with her eyes.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
