misstep
/ˈmɪs.stɛp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.60 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A step that is wrong, a false step.
Example Sentences
- "On a high ledge, a misstep could be fatal."
- "[…] burdened as he was, he did not think of length or height or toil. He remembered only to avoid a misstep and to keep his direction."
- "His comment was a misstep that could cost him dearly."
- "Plenty of past seasons’ events could look ill-conceived in the critical eye of Monday-morning quarterbacking, but previously, the show had earned the benefit of the doubt that missteps on the part of supposedly intelligent characters were a plausible lack of in-world foresight."
- "My dance partner misstepped and landed on my toe."
- "Eckhart also speaks of this happening to a man who has misstepped (vertreten, as I recall); God, then, corrects the mis-swing of the man and brings him back to the Tao or Logos."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *mey-? Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-der. Proto-Germanic *missaz Proto-Germanic *missa- Proto-West Germanic *missa- Old English mis- Middle English mys- English mis- Proto-Germanic *stapjaną Proto-West Germanic *stappjan Old English stæppan Middle English steppen English step English misstep From mis- + step.