misnomer
Syllables: mis·nom·erUK/(ˌ)mɪsˈnəʊmə//ˌmɪsˈnoʊməɹ/
misnomer noun: a mistake in the naming of a person or place; a misidentification.
Noun
misnomer (plural misnomers)
- A mistake in the naming of a person or place; a misidentification.
- An incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading; a misname.
- […] plaintiff's misstyling himself as corporation in initial complaint constituted case of misnomer.1994, Illinois. Appellate Court, Stephen Davis Porter, Illinois Appellate reports, page 257
- 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...2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2026
- A term which is misleading, even if firmly established, technically correct, or both.
- 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.
- Antonyms:
- aptronym
- Something which is asserted not to be true; a mistaken belief, a falsehood, a myth.
- It’s a misnomer that all doctors have bad handwriting.
Verb
misnomer (third-person singular simple present misnomers, present participle misnomering, simple past and past participle misnomered)
- To use an incorrect, and especially misleading, name for (someone or something); to misidentify, to misname.
- Synonyms:
- misnome
misnomer meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Kannada
misnomer in Tamil
- தவறான சொல் வழக்கு, தவறான சொல்வழக்கு, பிறழ் சொல்வழக்கு, பொருந்தாப் பெயர்
misnomer in Urdu
- غلط نام
misnomer in Kannada
- ಬೇನಾಮಿ, ತಪ್ಪು ಹೆಸರು, ತಪ್ಪು ಹೆಸರಿನ ಪ್ರಯೋಗ, ತಪ್ಪು ಹೆಸರು ಕೊಡು, ಹೆಸರುತಪ್ಪು, ಅಪಪ್ರಯೋಗ
Examples of misnomer in a sentence
- The vine part was apt, but the flower part was a misnomer.
- Capsicum chinense or 'Chinese capsicum' is a misnomer since all capsica originate in the New World.
- Which Micah assures me is a misnomer.
Synonyms of misnomer
- misnome
Antonyms
Forms of misnomer
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | misnomers |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | misnomers |
| present participle | misnomering |
| past participle | misnomered |
| past | misnomered |
Origin of misnomer
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.
Words formed from misnomer
- misnome
- misnomered
- misnominal
Words that rhyme with misnomer
Questions about misnomer
- What does misnomer mean?
- Misnomer means a mistake in the naming of a person or place; a misidentification.
- What is misnomer in Tamil?
- Misnomer in Tamil is தவறான சொல் வழக்கு, தவறான சொல்வழக்கு, பிறழ் சொல்வழக்கு. See Misnomer meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is misnomer?
- Misnomer can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce misnomer?
- Misnomer is pronounced /(ˌ)mɪsˈnəʊmə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of misnomer?
- The plural of misnomer is misnomers.
Words near misnomer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: misnomer (page history and authors); misnomer (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); misnomer (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); misnomer (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-misnomer.ogg.
Cite this entry: “misnomer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/misnomer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.