miss
/mɪs/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.22 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "I fired the gun, but the bullet missed the target."
- "I tried to kick the ball, but missed."
- "She tried to grab hold of the end of the rope, but she missed."
- "Men observe when things hit, and not when they miss."
- "Flying bullets now, To execute his rage, appear too slow; They miss, or sweep but common souls away."
- "When the lunar module Eagle landed on the Sea of Tranquillity, pilot Neil Armstrong was shocked to find he had missed the projected landing site by seven kilometers, a potentially fatal error."
Etymology
Verb from Middle English missen, from Old English missan (“to miss, escape the notice of a person”), from Proto-West Germanic *missijan, from Proto-Germanic *missijaną (“to miss, go wrong, fail”), from Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂- (“to change, exchange, trade”). Cognate with West Frisian misse (“to miss”), Dutch missen (“to miss”), German missen (“to miss”), Norwegian Bokmål and Danish miste (“to lose”), Swedish missa (“to miss”), Norwegian Nynorsk, Icelandic missa (“to lose”) and Latin mittere (“to send, let go”). Noun from Middle English misse, mis, from Old English miss (“loss, absence”), from Proto-West Germanic *miss, from Proto-Germanic *miss- (“loss”). Cognate with Scots miss (“a loss, want, cause of grief or mourning”), Middle High German misse, mis (“lack, missing, absence”), Icelandic missir (“loss”). Related also to Scots mis (“wrongdoing, sin, guilt”), Dutch mis (“misdeed, wrongdoing, mistake”), Middle Low German misse (“sin, wrong”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /mɪs/
- British English: /mɪs/