wrong number
Americannoun
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(in telephoning)
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a call made to a number other than the one intended.
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the number or person reached through such a call.
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Slang.
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the wrong person for a particular task, role, or situation.
Me cook a gourmet dinner?—You've got the wrong number!
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an inadequate, disagreeable, or repulsive person.
She's OK, but her brother's a wrong number.
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noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
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
On 9 October 2024, Mr McCann answered a call from Ms Wandelt to his wife's phone, saying she had "a wrong number".
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2025
According to the special counsel, however, that message — intended for a Republican lawmaker in Michigan — was sent to an undisclosed but definitely wrong number.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2024
Or it might have been a wrong number, someone asking for “Peter or Ricky,” and Bri just assumed the man had said Puerto Rico.
From "The Dead and the Gone" by Susan Beth Pfeffer
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.
