misnomer
/ˌmɪsˈnoʊməɹ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.73 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A mistake in the naming of a person or place; a misidentification.
noun
An incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading; a misname.
noun
A term which is misleading, even if firmly established, technically correct, or both.
verb
To use an incorrect, and especially misleading, name for (someone or something); to misidentify, to misname.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "[…] plaintiff's misstyling himself as corporation in initial complaint constituted case of misnomer."
- "Rewilding[…]is also a misnomer, for whether by getting rid of tens of thousands of sheep in Patagonia or introducing a living species as a surrogate for an extinct one – Sayaguesa cattle in place of aurochs in Croatia’s Velebit Mountains, for instance – rewilding requires more human intervention than its name suggests."
- "The name Chinese checkers is a misnomer since the game has nothing to do with China."
- "The word blackboard as applied to green or brown chalkboards is a misnomer but is not incorrect, as the broad sense of the word is idiomatic."
- "It’s a misnomer that all doctors have bad handwriting."
Etymology
The noun is derived from Late Middle English misnoumer (“(law) mistaken identification of a person; plea based on such misidentification”), from Anglo-Norman mesnomer, a noun use of Anglo-Norman mesnomer, mesnommer, and Old French mesnomer, mesnommer (“to name incorrectly”), from mes- (prefix meaning ‘badly, wrongly’) + nomer, nommer (“to name”) (from Latin nōmināre, the present active infinitive of nōminō (“to name”), from nōmen (“name”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (“name”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). The verb is derived from the noun.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *meyth₂-, misnoumer, mesnomer, nōmināre, *h₁nómn̥
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌmɪsˈnoʊməɹ/
- British English: /(ˌ)mɪsˈnəʊmə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Frequently Paired Words
Synonyms
misnome