misbegotten
Americanadjective
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unlawfully or irregularly begotten; born of unmarried parents; illegitimate.
his misbegotten son.
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badly conceived, made, or carried out.
his misbegotten plan.
adjective
-
unlawfully obtained
misbegotten gains
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badly conceived, planned, or designed
a misbegotten scheme
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Also: misbegot. literary illegitimate; bastard
Etymology
Origin of misbegotten
Explanation
If you describe something as misbegotten, you think it had an improper basis or was poorly conceived — like the misbegotten dress code at your school, which requires students to wear long sleeves even in hot, humid weather. The adjective misbegotten, which commonly means "badly planned," used to have another use: it was a derogatory way to describe someone born to unmarried parents. It's extremely old fashioned to use the word that way, but you may come across it in an older book — describing a misbegotten heroine, for example. Misbegotten can also be used simply to mean "contemptible," as in "That misbegotten villain stole my grandmother's purse!"
Vocabulary lists containing misbegotten
The House of the Scorpion
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A Storm of Swords
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A Girl Named Disaster
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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.
Both are examples of the misbegotten belief that just because humans can do something, they ought to at least try.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 21, 2026
He would redeem his misbegotten career and go out “in a blaze of glory,” as he would put it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2025
But the cognitive dissonance of this convention goes well beyond that forlorn, misbegotten entrepreneurial venture.
From Salon ● Jul. 18, 2024
Spanning decades and traversing the ancient Mediterranean like some deeply misbegotten Carnival Cruise, this Shakespeare play mingles comedy, tragedy and Christian allegory.
From New York Times ● Feb. 26, 2024
Of course it occurred to him that he might be wrong, that some misbegotten shadow had fallen across his face and warped his seeing.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
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.
