misspeak
/mɪsˈspiːk/
misspeak verb: to fail to pronounce, utter, or speak correctly.
Verb
misspeak (third-person singular simple present misspeaks, present participle misspeaking, simple past misspoke, past participle misspoken)
- To fail to pronounce, utter, or speak correctly.
- Either I misspoke or you misheard.
- The president’s comments on Wednesday came after Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the chamber’s only Black Republican, said that “white supremacy should be denounced at every turn. I think he misspoke, I think he should correct it. If he doesn’t correct it I guess he didn’t misspeak.”2020 September 30, “Trump Faces Torrent of Criticism From Fellow Republicans After Failing to Denounce White Supremacy”, in New York Times
- Synonyms:
- mistalk
- To speak insultingly or disrespectfully.
Synonyms of misspeak
Forms of misspeak
| third-person singular present | misspeaks |
|---|---|
| present participle | misspeaking |
| past | misspoke |
| past participle | misspoken |
Origin of misspeak
From Middle English misspeken, mispeken, mysspeken, from Old English *misspecan, missprecan (“to murmur”), equivalent to mis- + speak.
Words formed from misspeak
Words that rhyme with misspeak
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- leak
- seek
- bespeak
- pique
- tweak
- reek
- sleek
- geek
- peek
- squeak
- week
- wreak
- boutique
- clique
- creek
- forspeak
- gleek
- unique
- bleak
- cacique
- creak
- critique
- deke
- eek
- eke
- fleak
- on fleek
- respeak
- Tajik
- teak
- technique
- tongue-in-chic
- chic
- cleek
- desqueak
- leek
- malik
- meek
- midweek
- physique
- pratique
- shriek
- speke
- streek
- Zeke
- -speak
- Adam's Peak
- advertique
Questions about misspeak
- What does misspeak mean?
- Misspeak means to fail to pronounce, utter, or speak correctly.
- What part of speech is misspeak?
- Misspeak is a verb.
- How do you pronounce misspeak?
- Misspeak is pronounced /mɪsˈspiːk/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of misspeak?
- The past tense of misspeak is misspoke.
Words near misspeak in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: misspeak (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-misspeak.wav.
Cite this entry: “misspeak.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/misspeak. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.