Standard Lemma guide

misspell

verb · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • mĭs-spĕlʹ
  • /mɪsˈspɛl/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛl
  • CMU ARPABET: M IH0 S S P EH1 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
  • CMU ARPABET 2: M IH0 S P EH1 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To spell incorrectly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: transitive

Examples

  • I think they misspelled "crab" on the menu, because it says "crap soup".

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

spell incorrectly

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: spell, spell out

History

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- English spell English misspell From mis- + spell.

Across languages

Translations

27 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: أَخْطَأَ اَلتَّهْجِئَة (ʔaḵṭaʔa t-tahjiʔa) — to spell incorrectly
  • Bulgarian: неправилно пиша (nepravilno piša) — to spell incorrectly
  • Chinese Mandarin: 拼錯 /拼错 (pīncuò) — to spell incorrectly
  • Danish: stave forkert — to spell incorrectly
  • Dutch: misspellen — to spell incorrectly
  • Dutch: verkeerd spellen — to spell incorrectly
  • Esperanto: misliterumi — to spell incorrectly
  • Finnish: kirjoittaa väärin — to spell incorrectly
  • French: mal orthographier — to spell incorrectly
  • French: mal écrire — to spell incorrectly
  • German: falsch buchstabieren — to spell incorrectly
  • German: falsch schreiben — to spell incorrectly
  • Hebrew: שגה באיות (shagá beiyút) — to spell incorrectly
  • Hungarian: elír — to spell incorrectly
  • Italian: scrivere male — to spell incorrectly
  • Japanese: つづりを間違う (tsuzuri o machigau) — to spell incorrectly
  • Manx: mee-lettyr — to spell incorrectly
  • Māori: tuhi hē — to spell incorrectly
  • Persian: غلط نوشتن (ġalat neveštan) — to spell incorrectly
  • Portuguese: escrever errado — to spell incorrectly
  • Russian: орфографи́чески непра́вильно писа́ть (orfografíčeski neprávilʹno pisátʹ) — to spell incorrectly
  • Russian: де́лать орфографи́ческие оши́бки (délatʹ orfografíčeskije ošíbki) — to spell incorrectly
  • Spanish: deletrear / escribir mal / malamente — to spell incorrectly
  • Spanish: mal / malamente deletrear / escribir — to spell incorrectly
  • Swedish: stava fel — to spell incorrectly
  • Swedish: felstava — to spell incorrectly
  • Welsh: camsillafu — to spell incorrectly