English edit

Etymology edit

From Middle English misreden, from Old English misrǣdan (to advise wrongly; read wrongly), equivalent to mis- +‎ read. Cognate with Saterland Frisian misräide (to go wrong, fail), Dutch misraden (to guess wrongly), German missraten (to fail; go wrong; become wayward). For the noun, compare Old English misrǣd (misguidance; misconduct).

Pronunciation edit

  • (verb, present tense): IPA(key): /mɪsˈɹiːd/
  • (file)
  • (verb, past tense and past participle): IPA(key): /mɪsˈɹɛd/
  • (file)
  • (noun): IPA(key): /ˈmɪs.ɹiːd/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -iːd
  • Rhymes: -ɛd

Verb edit

misread (third-person singular simple present misreads, present participle misreading, simple past and past participle misread)

  1. To read wrongly; misconstrue; misinterpret; mistake the sense or significance of.
    • 1961 March, “Talking of trains: Collision at Waterloo”, in Trains Illustrated, page 138:
      In the circumstances the Inspecting Officer concludes that the electric train motorman, despite his assertions to the contrary, misread the up main relief inner home signal for his own and ran past the up main through inner home signal at danger; he must therefore be held responsible for the accident.
    • 2020, Stephanie Brown, Éva Tettenborn, Engaging Tradition, Making It New, page 146:
      Yet her obsession with remaining inscrutable has the curious effect of making her also unable to read others—for example, she misses entirely the subversive humor of the black garage mechanic, Jimmy, with whom she deals every day, uncertain whether he is "shy or dimwitted" (19). Similarly, she misreads her one black colleague, Pompey, whom she wrongly believes has sabotaged the elevator she is accused of having misinspected.
    • 2022 October 24, Eve Fairbanks, “Why Wasn’t I Canceled?”, in The Atlantic[1]:
      No South African believed it was possible—not to mention desirable—to write about the country’s white people without writing about its Black citizens; everybody’s self-understanding incorporates ideas proposed by people unlike themselves.“That doesn’t matter,” one of the editors told me, warning me I’d be “misread.”

Derived terms edit

Translations edit

Noun edit

misread (plural misreads)

  1. An instance of reading wrongly.
    • 1983, Lawrence Calmus, The business guide to small computers, page 143:
      Line fluctuations can cause misreads and miswrites.
    • 2011, Richard Margittay, Carnival Games: $10,000,000,000 Hoodwink Racket:
      To bait the mark, the veteran grifter initially covers one of the three numbers on the clothespin or miscounts the marble tally which serves to award the mark fairbanked points. The grateful mark will not question the grifter's tricky misread or miscount.

References edit

Anagrams edit