Mishear

//mɪsˈhɪə(ɹ)// verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To hear wrongly. ambitransitive

    "I misheard when she asked for mints, and gave her mince instead."

  2. 2
    To misunderstand.

Antonyms

All antonyms
hear

Example

More examples

"I always mishear song lyrics, even if the singer does it relatively clearly."

Etymology

From Middle English misheren, from Old English mishȳran, mishīeran (“to hear amiss, not listen to, disobey”), equivalent to mis- + hear.

Related phrases

lapsus auris

More for "mishear"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.