misunderstand
Americanverb (used with object)
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misunderstands,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misunderstood,
past participle, past
-
misunderstanding
present participle
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to take (words, statements, etc.) in a wrong sense; understand wrongly.
- Synonyms:
- misinterpret, misapprehend, misconstrue
-
to fail to understand or interpret rightly the words or behavior of.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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misunderstandsimple
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misunderstandssimple
-
have misunderstoodperfect
-
has misunderstoodperfect
-
am misunderstandingprogressive
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are misunderstandingprogressive
-
is misunderstandingprogressive
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have been misunderstandingperfect progressive
-
has been misunderstandingperfect progressive
Past
-
misunderstoodsimple
-
had misunderstoodperfect
-
was misunderstandingprogressive
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were misunderstandingprogressive
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had been misunderstandingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of misunderstand
First recorded in 1150–1200, misunderstand is from the Middle English word misunderstanden. See mis- 1, understand
Explanation
To misunderstand is to incorrectly interpret what someone means. If you misunderstand the directions for taking your medication, you might end up feeling loopy or passing out. When a football player misunderstands the coach's instructions, he might make the wrong play. If a baker misunderstands what you ask him to write on your best friend's birthday cake, he might misspell her name. The verb misunderstand adds the "bad" or "wrong" prefix mis- to understand, from an Old English root, understandan, that literally means "stand in the midst of."
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:
Hopefully Hollywood won’t misunderstand the lesson in those projects’ success.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
We also discovered—without too much surprise—that he often seems to fundamentally misunderstand the works he treasures most deeply.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
“People are desperate for indicators so they look at VIX and they misunderstand it,” says Scott Nations, president of volatility index developer Nations Indexes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
And if AI agents are not kept on course by a human, they could misunderstand an instruction and wander down an errant processing path, resulting in a business paying for wasted computing power.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
Finally, I had heard enough, and I interrupted him, “No, sir, you misunderstand the points that I am making.”
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Is she the one who is out of line and misunderstands the boundaries of marriage?
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026
For Barton, the red card illustrates something he believes the public still misunderstands: VAR does not eliminate the need for the referee to interpret the rules.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
Some of its language suggests that, despite several briefings, he completely misunderstands the subject of uranium enrichment—crucial to any negotiation with Iran.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
Your editorial praises a judicial opinion that misunderstands the 340B program.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
The evidence is clear: not only does della Porta echo Garzoni’s words, but he misunderstands some of the experiments he claims to have performed, and so misreports them.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Migraines are often misunderstood as "just a headache" despite being a neurological condition that can leave people unable to work, socialise or function in everyday life, according to a migraine expert.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
When scientists first discussed the possibility, the idea became widely misunderstood.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
Holmes and Evans embrace what they call “radical transparency,” opening their home to the cameras in hopes of convincing the filmmakers — and eventually the world — that the public has fundamentally misunderstood her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026
After WSJ reported on the email, a DOJ spokeswoman said the official misunderstood a directive to push back a scheduled meeting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026
It was the same frown Cat misunderstood the day they first met.
From "Caterpillar Summer" by Gillian McDunn
Peter Sparkes, chief executive of the RNLI, said recent events had "generated deliberate misinformation and a misunderstanding about the RNLI".
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
This led to a public misunderstanding of her work with him, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
When he began practicing urology in the 1980s, the common misunderstanding was that testosterone injections caused prostate cancer, further suppressing research and treatment of testosterone deficiency.
From Slate ● Sep. 13, 2026
Speaking from personal experience, I’ve encountered many a cat misunderstanding from non-kitty people.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Which I’d argue is just a fundamental misunderstanding of the human predicament, but okay.
From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green
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.
