Misunderstanding

//ˌmɪsʌndəˈstændɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A mistake as to the meaning of something or a specific point of view; erroneous interpretation or comprehension; misconception.

    "The worst distance between two people is misunderstanding. - Thoughtkick"

  2. 2
    an understanding of something that is not correct wordnet
  3. 3
    A disagreement; difference of opinion; dissension; quarrel.

    "It was only months and months afterwards, when I made the attempt to recover what was left of the body, that I heard the original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens."

  4. 4
    putting the wrong interpretation on wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of misunderstand form-of, gerund, participle, present

Synonyms

All synonyms
differencedisagreementmisconceptionmisinterpretationmistakeabuse of terms

Example

More examples

"I think there has been some misunderstanding here."

Etymology

From Middle English mys undirstonding, equivalent to misunderstand + -ing. Compare Dutch misverstand (“misunderstanding”), German Missverständnis (“misunderstanding”), Swedish missförstånd (“misunderstanding”).

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