Mischievous

How to spell mischievous

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce mischievous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does mischievous mean?

1. adjectiveInclined to cause playful or minor trouble, often with a teasing or impish quality.

Mischievous in a sentence

• The puppy gave a mischievous tug at the loose shoelace.

• A mischievous grin spread across her face as she hid the keys.

Where does mischievous come from?

Language of origin: French

This adjective traces back to the Old French verb meschever, which meant 'to come to an unfortunate end' or 'to fare badly'. That verb was built from the prefix mes- (meaning 'wrongly' or 'badly') and chever 'to come to a head', which itself grew from chief, the Old French word for 'head' or 'end' (ultimately the Latin caput, 'head'). The related noun 'mischief' entered English in the 1300s meaning genuine harm, misfortune, or wrongdoing, a much darker sense than today's playful one; only later did the word soften to suggest naughty, harmless trouble-making. The adjective 'mischievous' followed, adding the Latin-derived suffix -ous ('full of'). A crucial spelling point hides in that history: the word ends in -ievous, with no extra 'i', even though many speakers say it as if it were 'mischievious'; remembering that it is simply mischief plus -ous keeps the spelling honest.

How the word is built

• mis- (badly, wrongly)
• chiev (from Old French chever: to come to a head, to happen)
• -ous (adjective suffix: full of)