misspell
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
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
-
misspellsimple
-
misspellssimple
-
have misspelledperfect
-
have misspeltperfect
-
has misspelledperfect
-
has misspeltperfect
-
am misspellingprogressive
-
are misspellingprogressive
-
is misspellingprogressive
-
have been misspellingperfect progressive
-
has been misspellingperfect progressive
Past
-
misspelledsimple
-
misspeltsimple
-
had misspelledperfect
-
had misspeltperfect
-
was misspellingprogressive
-
were misspellingprogressive
-
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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mis-
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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
Among the words Ms. Bolden spelled correctly were prejudice, persevere, misspell and embarrass.
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2023
Be just my luck, I get in the paper for something good and they misspell my name.
From "Bronx Masquerade" by Nikki Grimes
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
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
The list, which Wilkes testified he presented to Clippers consultant Jerry West during lunch in Beverly Hills two weeks after Leonard signed, misspells Wilkes’ last name and erroneously refers to Leonard as “Kawi.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2021
He even misspells his name when reserving airplane tickets and says it has never created a problem going through security.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 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
A previous version of this column misspelled the first name of Jesica Ray of Brighton Jones.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026
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
Some people even misspelled her job title as “Crypt Analyst,” which led to mix-ups.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
The autocorrect can helpfully substitute a reasoned replacement for a misspelt word while texting, but it can also unintentionally change the meaning.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2023
Skipping past Christian Fuchs, whose name was rather unfortunately misspelt on the teamsheet, Willmott delivered a terrific cross on the run that exposed Wes Morgan’s poor positioning.
From The Guardian ● Jan. 6, 2019
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
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
Afram released a trailer for the vanished film anyway—which included a misspelling of co-star Ben Kingsley’s name.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2026
Naming is a big theme throughout the book, whether that be the misspelling of your maiden name or choosing your daughter’s names.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2025
A sports retail giant has come under fire for misspelling the Welsh word for Wales on its bobble hats.
From BBC ● Dec. 3, 2024
They say her note about “Dr. Trumpet” was a misspelling of Dr. Trombka, Sneed’s psychiatrist.
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2024
She found another typo in Griswold’s: exsessively—a misspelling she had missed all the previous times she’d pored over this story.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
