Misunderstanding
nounA failure to grasp something correctly, or a minor disagreement arising from this.
How to spell misunderstanding
16 letters · 5 syllables
How to pronounce misunderstanding
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does misunderstanding mean?
- nounA failure to grasp something correctly, or a minor disagreement arising from this.
Misunderstanding in a sentence
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A simple misunderstanding over the meeting time left half the team waiting in the wrong room.
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The contract was reworded to prevent any misunderstanding about who pays the shipping costs.
Where does misunderstanding come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word is built entirely from native English parts, which is part of why it feels so long yet so familiar. At its heart is the verb 'understand', recorded in Old English as 'understandan', literally a joining of 'under' and 'standan' (to stand); the early sense was less about being beneath something and more about standing in the midst of or close to a matter, and so grasping it. To that the prefix 'mis-', an old Germanic element meaning 'wrongly' or 'badly' (the same one in 'mistake' and 'mislead'), was attached to give 'misunderstand', meaning to grasp something wrongly. Adding the noun-forming suffix '-ing' produced 'misunderstanding', a failure of comprehension or, by extension, a minor disagreement, in use from the late 1300s onward. Because every piece is a recognisable everyday English word, the spelling trap is not exotic letters but simply keeping all the pieces in order: mis, under, stand, ing.
How the word is built
- mis- (wrongly, badly)
- under-
- stand (from Old English standan: to stand, hence to comprehend)
- -ing (noun suffix)
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