missplit

missplit verb: to split incorrectly.

Verb

missplit (third-person singular simple present missplits, present participle missplitting, simple past and past participle missplit)

To split incorrectly.
- In the 1953 program, it was more or less a crash progam in which the Bureau of the Budget on one day told us we could come up here with so much money and that night at 4 o'clock in the morning they finally finished splitting items, and they missplit this particular item and had the estimate too low...1954, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations, The Supplemental Appropriation Bill, 1955, page 719
- Also if you missplit, you can just undo it and skip the split.2015, “Livesplit Question : r/speedrun”, in Reddit
(meat processing) To incompletely sever the spinal column with a saw.
- After observing them at work for some 5 minutes, Ludlow concluded it was Beedle who missplit 10 to 30 percent of the cattle he sawed.1973, United States. National Labor Relations Board, Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, page 879
- The likelihood that missplitting will occur depends on the size and age of the animal (e.g. calves are less likely to be missplit than bulls or cows) and the proficiency of the saw operator.2003, Brian K. Nunnally, Ira S. Krull, Prions and Mad Cow Disease, page 68

missplit (plural missplits)

An instance or result of missplitting (any sense)
- It took about three long-pull shaves (right, left and middle) of the draw knife, upon the shingle, clamped in the shaving horse, to thin its top surface and straighten its long sides. Numerous missplits were thrown away.1929, Henry C. Mercer, Ancient Carpenters' Tools, page 13
- The extent to which AMR product becomes contaminated is particularly sensitive to missplits because they can leave behind pieces of spinal cord encapsulated in the vertebral column that are processed by AMR.2003, Brian K. Nunnally, Ira S. Krull, Prions and Mad Cow Disease, page 68

The modern meaning of cyber- is heavily influenced by Gibson's cyberspace, but he wasn't actually the first to missplit it.2023, “The etymologies of common computer terms : r/etymology”, in Reddit:
Plants should have protocols for handling missplit carcasses.2005, J Sofos, Improving the Safety of Fresh Meat, page 292:

Verb
third-person singular present	missplits
present participle	missplitting
past participle	missplit
past	missplit
Noun
plural	missplits

From mis- + split.

What does missplit mean?: Missplit means to split incorrectly.
How do you use missplit in a sentence?: The modern meaning of cyber- is heavily influenced by Gibson's cyberspace, but he wasn't actually the first to missplit it.
What part of speech is missplit?: Missplit can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of missplit?: The past tense of missplit is missplit.

Adapted from Wiktionary: missplit (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

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