mislead
Americanverb (used with object)
-
misleads,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misled,
past participle, past
-
misleading
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
misleads,
present (3rd person singular)
-
misled,
past participle, past
-
misleading
present participle
verb
-
to give false or misleading information to
-
to lead or guide in the wrong direction
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
misleadsimple
-
misleadssimple
-
have misledperfect
-
has misledperfect
-
am misleadingprogressive
-
are misleadingprogressive
-
is misleadingprogressive
-
have been misleadingperfect progressive
-
has been misleadingperfect progressive
Past
-
misledsimple
-
had misledperfect
-
was misleadingprogressive
-
were misleadingprogressive
-
had been misleadingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mislead
before 1050; Middle English misleden, Old English mislǣdan. See mis- 1, lead 1
Explanation
Use the verb mislead to describe what you're doing when you don't tell the whole truth, or when you let someone believe something false. You mislead someone when you point them in the wrong direction, literally or metaphorically. If you let your cousin think an expensive gift is from you when you actually just sent her a card, you are misleading her. And if you give a tourist directions away from the chain restaurant he's looking for, you are misleading him. Finally, if you think this doesn't really count as lying, you're misleading yourself.
Vocabulary lists containing mislead
Fake It 'Til You Make It: Synonyms for "False"
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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:
“The passage of Senate Bill 1159 is an important step to clarify the law and discourage the use of emerging technologies to falsify public records and mislead regulators in California,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Novo Nordisk filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly, accusing it of using outdated studies to mislead consumers about the comparative weight-loss effectiveness of its GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound against Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
"If fabricated studies make their way into the evidence base, they can mislead real scientists and ultimately slow progress for patients. That's why it's vital we get ahead of this problem."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 16, 2026
But if that’s the case, why would a grown man feel the need to mislead a bunch of kids about how fast and strong and good at climbing it he is?
From Slate ● Jun. 24, 2026
Occasionally, focussing on a linguistic alteration can mislead us into thinking that something important has happened when it hasn’t, or that something happened at a particular moment when it actually happened earlier.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Ofcom's proposed measures are targeting content which advertises products or services in a way that misleads or tricks viewers.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
One major reason is fraud, where one party intentionally misleads the other before the agreement is signed, causing the other party to enter the contract based on false information.
From MarketWatch ● May 20, 2026
The Times report misleads readers about Supreme Court procedure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
Elon Musk, who founded xAI, opposes OpenAI’s restructuring plan because he believes it veers away from the company’s founding principles and misleads investors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2025
The forest's gloom makes our steps go astray; Each thicket of trees our searching misleads.
From The Wisdom of Confucius with Critical and Biographical Sketches by Epiphanius Wilson
Callaghan “had no idea it had anything to do with crypto, he was completely misled by Hunter Biden,” Mitchell Jackson, a representative for Callaghan and other popular social-media figures, told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 9, 2026
In a statement to the BBC, Amazon "strongly disagrees" with the premise that it misled advertisers and called the suit "misguided."
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
In a Facebook post, football coach Vince Carter mourned his player, writing that Brown “was around the wrong crowd and was getting misled and misguided,” adding, “it hurts to see this is how it ended.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2026
US prosecutors charged that Boeing misled FAA regulators about MCAS, resulting in no reference to the system in manuals and pilot training materials.
From Barron's ● Aug. 3, 2026
It was this combination of daintiness and cultivated speech that misled Macon and invited him to regard her as merely foolish.
From "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison
In response to parliamentary questions, ministers said the tax agency used influencers to help reach the public with accessible information through "authentic and trusted voices", countering misleading tax guidance on social media.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
“The Government’s broader counter-disinformation work is focused on identifying coordinated attempts to spread false or misleading information online, not individuals,” it said in a statement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Kennedy has recommended the MMR vaccine, but also shared misleading information about its safety.
From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026
For now, accredited newsrooms and specialized agencies will continue to fact-check misleading content on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026
After all, fiction can be dangerously misleading or distracting.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
