mismatch
Americanverb (used with object)
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mismatches,
present (3rd person singular)
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mismatched,
past participle, past
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mismatching
present participle
noun
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mismatches
plural
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mismatchsimple
-
mismatchessimple
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have mismatchedperfect
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has mismatchedperfect
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am mismatchingprogressive
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are mismatchingprogressive
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is mismatchingprogressive
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have been mismatchingperfect progressive
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has been mismatchingperfect progressive
Past
-
mismatchedsimple
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had mismatchedperfect
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was mismatchingprogressive
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were mismatchingprogressive
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had been mismatchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mismatch
Explanation
When two things (or people) don't work well together or correspond with each other, it's a mismatch. If there's a mismatch between the amount of free time you have and the hours of exercise your puppy needs, you might want to hire a dog walker. There might be a mismatch between workers' skills and the actual jobs that are available, or a mismatch between your aunt and uncle, who seem totally unsuited for each other. Mismatch is also a verb that means "match up badly," like when you mismatch your red shirt with your purple pants. Sometimes sports matches or games are called mismatches too, when one team is clearly superior to the other.
Vocabulary lists containing mismatch
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:
Though many bogus emails come from Gmail accounts, one giveaway was the mismatch between the email’s domain address and the recruiting firm’s internet domain address.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 5, 2026
Pooja Bhatt, an associate professor at OP Jindal Global University, says that mismatch is increasingly difficult to ignore.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
"In this work, we aimed to overcome this mismatch between the readily available and the practically useful forms of entanglement," says Andrés-Juanes.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026
In a TV appearance, executives involved in the agreement said the extreme supply and demand mismatch for Nvidia’s chips means they make excellent collateral, unlike fast-depreciating computer processors of the past.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Elizabeth and her friend are a total mismatch.
From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan
Similarly, longtime HSI insiders cautioned that using the agency’s databases and tools to search these lists would yield mismatches and wildly inflated results.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
He has the size and physicality of a tight end, which creates mismatches with smaller cornerbacks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Semiconductor stocks have historically been cyclical, experiencing boom-and-bust phases from supply-demand mismatches.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 29, 2026
Asian countries are limited in how much U.S. energy they can process by infrastructure mismatches.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026
This longing for sincere souls, too, it may well have been which wrung from Clotilda the assertion, that there were mismatches only between souls, not between ranks.
From Hesperus or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days Vol. II A Biography by Jean Paul
The film hits its predictable highs and lows as the mismatched Owen and Emily get closer and romantic complications mount.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
What follows — the drained reserves, the mismatched oil, the strained grid and the price we all pay — is the fallout.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
The FBI investigated as well and found applications with missing or mismatched information.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
The challenge became even more difficult when matching and mismatched color words appeared together in the same list.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 10, 2026
A dizzying network of chambers, interspersed with hallways containing mismatched doors.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
Among them facsimiles of relevant ephemera are bound in mismatching formats: foldout drawings, transparencies, die-cuttings and pamphlets whose archival relevance you must flip through to ascertain.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
"We find that user engagement increases when the national headquarters lead the production of content and the local accounts follow either by tweeting to a matching or mismatching audience, depending on timing in the operation."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2023
Flowers that bloom in early balmy weather run the risk of mismatching with their primary pollinators—such as hummingbirds or bees—which can follow non-climate-dependent cues such as day length.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 22, 2023
“The mismatching of financial market pricing and economic reality is both stark and stretched,” Bennett said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 6, 2023
It's like mismatching anything else—gloves or stockings—and wearing the wrong ones together.
From Faith Gartney's Girlhood by A. D. T. (Adeline Dutton Train) Whitney
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.
