wrong number

American  

noun

1. (in telephoning)

   1. a call made to a number other than the one intended.

   2. the number or person reached through such a call.

2. Slang.

   1. the wrong person for a particular task, role, or situation.

      Me cook a gourmet dinner?—You've got the wrong number!

   2. an inadequate, disagreeable, or repulsive person.

      She's OK, but her brother's a wrong number.

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wrong number British  

noun

1. a telephone number wrongly connected or dialled in error or the person so contacted

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Example Sentences

In the past, I’ve accidentally given incorrect public transit information when writing about how to get to a museum, or reported the wrong number of poles in the product description for a tent.

From Slate • Mar. 28, 2026

Suddenly, machines on the East Coast that tried to process trillions of requests were getting the internet’s equivalent of a wrong number.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 21, 2025

It’s estimated that 70 percent of miscarriages happen when an embryo has the wrong number of chromosomes.

From Salon • Feb. 1, 2024

Pig butchering scammers often find their victims on dating sites or social media, or by calling and pretending to have dialed a wrong number, federal officials said in the release.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2023

But after school started, after Hannah, I was a stranger with a secondhand phone and someone named Mabel had the wrong number.

From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour

Related Words

• false
• faulty
• flawed
• inaccurate
• invalid
• misguided
• mistaken
• specious
• spurious
• unfounded
• unsound
• untrue