misunderstand

American  

[mis-uhn-der-stand] / ˌmɪs ʌn dərˈstænd /

verb (used with object)

• misunderstands,
  present (3rd person singular)
• misunderstood,
  past participle,  past
• misunderstanding
  present participle

1. to take (words, statements, etc.) in a wrong sense; understand wrongly.

   Synonyms:

   misinterpret, misapprehend, misconstrue

2. to fail to understand or interpret rightly the words or behavior of.

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misunderstand British  

/ ˌmɪsʌndəˈstænd /

verb

1. to fail to understand properly

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• misunderstander
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• misunderstanding
  present
• misunderstood
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• misunderstand
  simple
• misunderstands
  simple
• have misunderstood
  perfect
• has misunderstood
  perfect
• am misunderstanding
  progressive
• are misunderstanding
  progressive
• is misunderstanding
  progressive
• have been misunderstanding
  perfect progressive
• has been misunderstanding
  perfect progressive

Past

• misunderstood
  simple
• had misunderstood
  perfect
• was misunderstanding
  progressive
• were misunderstanding
  progressive
• had been misunderstanding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will misunderstand
  simple
• will have misunderstood
  perfect
• will be misunderstanding
  progressive
• will have been misunderstanding
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of misunderstand

First recorded in 1150–1200, misunderstand is from the Middle English word misunderstanden. See mis- ¹, understand

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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

See Examples For:

misunderstand misunderstands misunderstood misunderstanding

He also said that supporters of parent-notification policies misstate or misunderstand the parent-teacher relationship that exists in practice and under state law.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

To dismiss that language as frivolous, Shah argues, is to misunderstand what it is doing.

From BBC ● Jul. 22, 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

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

“Sir, you quite misunderstand me,” said Mrs. Bennet, alarmed.

From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

In response Kundizeza wrote: "To suggest that a writer cannot write in different styles or genres, or improve his writing substantially after five or more years fundamentally misunderstands the craft of writing."

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

Is she the one who is out of line and misunderstands the boundaries of marriage?

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 1, 2026

Such a view misunderstands what the court is up to in those rare instances when it has stood up to the president.

From Slate ● Sep. 16, 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

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

So when our realtor texted early Monday morning to tell us our offer had been accepted, we assumed we’d misunderstood.

From Slate ● Oct. 28, 2026

Israeli food isn’t the world’s only culinary melting pot, but it may be the most misunderstood.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026

When scientists first discussed the possibility, the idea became widely misunderstood.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026

Caroline Hughes, senior support services Manager for Meningitis Research Foundation, said the long term consequences of the disease "remain widely misunderstood".

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

Throughout history, leprosy has been one of the most misunderstood, feared, and reviled diseases in the world.

From "At Last She Stood" by Erin Entrada Kelly

McKinney thinks Roy’s emphasis on fighting Trump speaks to a misunderstanding of the job.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026

The results also highlighted a persistent misunderstanding surrounding the familiar hurricane "cone of uncertainty."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 20, 2026

Proponents of the castaway theory argue this may have been a misunderstanding of Earhart giving her location as near the Norwich City.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

During Wednesday's earnings conference call, BofA executives were asked "how it gets to this point" and whether there was a misunderstanding of the rules.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026

All of this is a salutary lesson in the way tottering edifices of theology can be built on a small textual misunderstanding.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

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