misunderstand

English

Etymology

From Middle English mys-understanden, equivalent to mis- +‎ understand.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɪs.ʌn.də(ɹ)ˈstænd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɪs.ʌn.dɚˈstænd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænd

Verb

misunderstand (third-person singular simple present misunderstands, present participle misunderstanding, simple past and past participle misunderstood)

1. (transitive) To understand incorrectly, while believing one has understood correctly.
   • 2024, NTSB, Intersection Crash Between Passenger Car and Combination Vehicle, Tishomingo, Oklahoma, March 22, 2022:

     We found that teen drivers and the public largely misunderstand the legal status of cannabis use and do not fully recognize the risks of cannabis-impaired driving.

Synonyms

• take (something) the wrong way

Derived terms

• misunderstandable
• misunderstanding
• misunderstander

Translations

to understand incorrectly, while believing one has understood correctly

• Afrikaans: misverstaan
• Albanian: keqkuptoj (sq)
• Arabic: أَسَاءَ الْفَهْم (ʔasāʔa l-fahm)
• Armenian: սխալ հասկանալ (sxal haskanal)
• Bulgarian: разбирам погрешно (razbiram pogrešno)
• Catalan: malentendre (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 誤會 / 误会 (zh) (wùhuì), 誤解 / 误解 (zh) (wùjiě)

• Czech: neporozumět, špatně pochopit
• Danish: misforstå (da)
• Dutch: misverstaan (nl)
• Esperanto: malinterpreti
• Estonian: valesti aru saama
• Finnish: ymmärtää väärin, käsittää väärin
• French: mal interpréter, méprendre (fr), mécomprendre (fr)
• Galician: malentender
• Georgian: არასწორად გაგება (arasc̣orad gageba)
• German: missverstehen (de), falsch verstehen
• Greek: παρεξηγώ (el) (parexigó)
• Haitian Creole: konprann mal
• Hindi: ग़लत समझना (ġalat samajhnā)
• Hungarian: félreért (hu)
• Icelandic: misskilja
• Indonesian: salah paham
• Italian: fraintendere (it), equivocare, prendere una cantonata, prendere un abbaglio, prendere un granchio, male interpretare
• Japanese: 勘違いする (ja) (かんちがいする, kanchigai suru), 誤解する (ja) (ごかいする, gokai suru)
• Khmer: យល់ខុស (yʊəl kʰoh)
• Korean: 오해하다 (ko) (ohaehada)
• Latin: male teneō, male intellegō, male capiō, male percipiō, male sciō, male comprehendō, fallor, fallō
• Malay: salah faham
• Malayalam: തെറ്റിദ്ധരിക്കുക (ml) (teṟṟiddharikkuka)
• Maori: tuakoi
• Marathi: गैरसमज होणे (gairsamaj̈ hoṇe)
• Mongolian: буруу ойлгох (buruu ojlgox)
• Norwegian: misforstå (no)
• Portuguese: entender mal
• Russian: неправильно понимать (nepravilʹno ponimatʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: mì-bhreithnich
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: pogrešno razumjeti

• Spanish: malentender (es), tomarlo [a] mal
• Swedish: missförstå (sv)
• Thai: เข้าใจผิด (kâo-jai-pìt), เขว (th) (kwăy)
• Turkish: yanlış anlamak
• Urdu: غلط سمجھنا (ġalat samajhnā)

See also

• misinterpret