amiss

/əˈmɪs/

amiss adjective: wrong; faulty; out of order; improper or otherwise incorrect.

Adjective

amiss (comparative more amiss, superlative most amiss)

(predicative) Wrong; faulty; out of order; improper or otherwise incorrect.
- He suspected something was amiss.
- Something amiss in the arrangements had distracted the staff.
Synonyms:

awry

Adverb

amiss (not comparable)

(archaic) Wrongly; mistakenly
- The fire seven times tried this:
  Seven times tried that judgement is,
  That did never choose amiss.
  Some there be that shadows kiss:
  Such have but a shadow's bliss.
  There be fools alive, I wis,
  Silver'd o'er; and so was this.
  I will ever be your head:
  So be gone: you are sped.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- We shall not do amiss to notice, also, that in ordinary conversation, a few words are used as Turkish singulars, which are, in reality, Arabic plurals; but this is not correct in writing.1856, J. W. Redhouse, An English and Turkish Dictionary, page xxvi
Astray.
Imperfectly.

Noun

amiss

(obsolete) Fault; wrong; an evil act, a bad deed.
- Now by my head (said Guyon) much I muse, / How that same knight should do so foule amis[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
- Yet Love, thou'rt blinder then thy self in this, / To vex my Dove-like friend for my amiss[…].1635, John Donne, His parting from her

amiss meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

amiss in Hindi

गलत, अनुचित

amiss in Tamil

wrong; faulty; out of order; improper or otherwise incorrect — see also wrong: தவறு tavaṟu, தப்பு tappu

amiss in Urdu

بھَٹَک کَر, غَلَط انداز سے, نا مُناسِب طَریقے سے, بُرے طَور سے

amiss in Malayalam

തെറ്റിപ്പോയ, അബദ്ധമായ, അനുചിതമായ, പിശകായ

More languagesFewer languages

amiss in Kannada: ತಪ್ಪಿದ, ತಪ್ಪಾದ

Examples of amiss in a sentence

His wisdom and virtue cannot always rectify that which is amiss in himself or his circumstances.1722, William Wollaston, The Religion of Nature Delineated:
There is a strong feeling across the land that something is amiss in America.2009, Robert Perrucci, Carolyn Cummings Perrucci, America at Risk: The Crisis of Hope, Trust, and Caring:
When Kalf saw that he gave her to understand that she had done amiss; and bade her take it off at her swiftest.1899, The Laxdaela Saga (translated by Muriel A. C. Press) Chapter 44

All 17 example sentences with amiss

Synonyms of amiss

awry

Forms of amiss

comparative	more amiss
superlative	most amiss

Origin of amiss

From a- + miss.

Words formed from amiss

Phrases with amiss

Words that rhyme with amiss

22 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about amiss

What does amiss mean?: Amiss means wrong; faulty; out of order; improper or otherwise incorrect.
What is amiss in Hindi?: Amiss in Hindi is गलत, अनुचित. See Amiss meaning in Hindi.
How do you use amiss in a sentence?: His wisdom and virtue cannot always rectify that which is amiss in himself or his circumstances.
What part of speech is amiss?: Amiss can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce amiss?: Amiss is pronounced /əˈmɪs/ (UK).

Words near amiss in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: amiss (page history and authors); Amiss (Hindi Wiktionary) (page history and authors); amiss (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); amiss (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); amiss (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-amiss.wav.

Cite this entry: “amiss.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/amiss. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.