misgrasp
/ˈmɪsɡɹæsp/
misgrasp noun: a failure to grasp or understand; misapprehension.
Noun
misgrasp (plural misgrasps)
- A failure to grasp or understand; misapprehension.
- They all reflect to a greater or lesser degree, in the language and explanatory material employed, the same misgrasp of biological theory mentioned before.1984, Ethel M. Wheeler, How "Montessorian" are the Montessori Schools?, page 87
- To compound that problem by disseminating misinformation based on a woeful misgrasp of the facts to concerned citizens without first "checking the facts” with a knowledgeable biologist (of which you employ many at the hands-on level) is simply irresponsibility defined.1992, Mark Jerome Walters, A Shadow and a Song: The Struggle to Save an Endangered Species, page 154
Verb
IPA/mɪsˈɡɹæsp/
misgrasp (third-person singular simple present misgrasps, present participle misgrasping, simple past and past participle misgrasped)
- To fail to correctly understand; misunderstand.
- When the waiter brought me a large white cup and saucer, I concluded that either he or I had misgrasped the situation.1947, Hermon Ould, Shuttle: An Autobiographical Sequence, page 268
- Harding (1986) argues that a leap to relativism is not necessary and that it “misgrasps” feminist critiques.1994, Donna L. Sollie, Leigh A. Leslie, Gender, Families and Close Relationships, page 228
Examples of misgrasp in a sentence
- But she bends the rules for Seti, an Egyptian student worker with an amusing misgrasp of English who has fallen for the wiles of Lili, the library director's sensuous daughter.2010, George M. Eberhart, The Librarian's Book of Lists, page 42:
- In the eyes of someone who holds either that a norm is valid, or indeed, that there is a rational validation for norms, treating a norm in terms of its function is to misgrasp the idea of norms.2004, Sinkwan Cheng, Law, Justice, and Power: Between Reason and Will, page 194:
Forms of misgrasp
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | misgrasps |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | misgrasps |
| present participle | misgrasping |
| past participle | misgrasped |
| past | misgrasped |
Origin of misgrasp
From mis- + grasp.
Questions about misgrasp
- What does misgrasp mean?
- Misgrasp means a failure to grasp or understand; misapprehension.
- How do you use misgrasp in a sentence?
- But she bends the rules for Seti, an Egyptian student worker with an amusing misgrasp of English who has fallen for the wiles of Lili, the library director's sensuous daughter.
- What part of speech is misgrasp?
- Misgrasp can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce misgrasp?
- Misgrasp is pronounced /ˈmɪsɡɹæsp/.
- What is the plural of misgrasp?
- The plural of misgrasp is misgrasps.
Words near misgrasp in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: misgrasp (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:
Cite this entry: “misgrasp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/misgrasp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.