misspell
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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misspells,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misspelled,
past participle, past
-
misspelt,
past participle, past
-
misspelling
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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misspellsimple
-
misspellssimple
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have misspelledperfect
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have misspeltperfect
-
has misspelledperfect
-
has misspeltperfect
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am misspellingprogressive
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are misspellingprogressive
-
is misspellingprogressive
-
have been misspellingperfect progressive
-
has been misspellingperfect progressive
Past
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misspelledsimple
-
misspeltsimple
-
had misspelledperfect
-
had misspeltperfect
-
was misspellingprogressive
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were misspellingprogressive
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had been misspellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misspell
Explanation
When you misspell something, you spell it worng. Whoops. Sorry about that — When you misspell something, you spell it wrong. When you have the letters in the wrong order or you don't have the right letters, you misspell. How humiliating it would be to misspell this word! Just remember that you need two s's — the one in mis- (as in mistake or mishandle), meaning to do something the wrong way, and the s in spell.
Vocabulary lists containing misspell
Commonly Misspelled Words, List 6
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mis-
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for January 7–January 13, 2023
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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:
In his original message to Claude, he even managed to misspell the name Riemann.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Toczylowski said federal agents sometimes misspell the name of the person they are booking into custody.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2025
He added that "typo-squatting" - a type of cyber-crime that targets users who incorrectly misspell an internet domain - is common.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2023
In a group called Healthcare Heroes for Personal Choice, an administrator instructed people to remove or misspell buzzwords and to avoid using the syringe emoji.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 28, 2021
Never in my life have I known Metias to misspell anything.
From "Legend" by Marie Lu
He accidentally misspells Orlando as "Ornaldo", before apologising to all the "perfect brothers and sisters out there" for his mistake – all while staring blankly into the camera.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Cinc, a real estate lead generation platform, offers agents an AI-powered digital assistant that purposefully misspells words and uses emojis to make interactions with potential leads appear more human.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
For example, he couldn’t tell you my current job and still misspells my primary school age kid’s name, and my kid’s name has four letters.
From Slate ● Mar. 21, 2021
It misspells the last name of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and addresses him with the wrong title, as well as misspelling the name of the interior minister.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 27, 2018
Some boat owner in Florida misspells “Grandma” and look what happens: a myth is bom, a province is renamed, a Communist party newspaper is launched.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
During a recent AI training session for educators in South Carolina, an AI-generated world map misspelled Mali as “Mail,” labeled Egypt “Sopth” and replaced Libya with a country simply called “Africa.”
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
Corrections & Amplifications: The name of Venu Krishna, U.S. equity strategist at Barclays, was misspelled in an earlier version of this article.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
One password-protected website has the creatively misspelled URL poiymarket.com, which is indistinguishable from polymarket.com when the “i” is capitalized.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
Think of the number of times you have misspelled something, or said the wrong word, and still been understood.
From Science Daily ● May 22, 2026
He’s called me Anfrew since second grade when Mrs. Long misspelled it on my name tag for field day.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
She forged a degree certificate and a letter of verification in 1995, with the word verify misspelt, the court heard.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2025
In some places, words are redacted or misspelt.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 13, 2018
Introduced in 2017, the spelling test asks children to identify misspelt words.
From BBC ● May 17, 2018
Xavier Jugelé must have told me his name three times and I had misspelt it each time.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2017
There were, as I recall, many misspelt, ill- formed sentences about how much in love the couple were, how wonderful the second footman was, and how marvellous the future was that awaited them both.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
But in another instance, Epstein was critical of misspelling.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
Above him hung a “Moore’s Refishing” sign, a friend’s comical misspelling of the shop’s name.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 16, 2025
The misspelling of 'philosopher's' on the back of the copy was among the things that helped Mr Pearce identify it as a first edition.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2025
They say her note about “Dr. Trumpet” was a misspelling of Dr. Trombka, Sneed’s psychiatrist.
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2024
He was also poorly read, seldom wrote his own speeches, and, according to one member of his cabinet, “could not write a sentence without misspelling some word.”
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
