Word.ws English Dictionary

mistaken

/mɪˈsteɪkn̩/

mistaken is the past participle of mistake.

Adjective

mistaken (comparative more mistaken, superlative most mistaken)

  1. Erroneous.
    • A mistaken sense of loyalty.
    • The statement also recognised that Eta’s “mistakes or mistaken decisions” had led to the deaths of people who had nothing to do with the conflict, both in the Basque country and beyond.2018 April 20, Sam Jones, “'We are truly sorry': Eta apologises for four decades of deadly violence”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2019
  2. (often) Having an incorrect belief.
    • I think you must be (very) much mistaken.
    • He admitted he was mistaken about the budget numbers.

Meaning of mistake

Verb

mistake (third-person singular simple present mistakes, present participle mistaking, simple past mistook, past participle mistaken)

  1. (transitive) To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
    • Sorry, I mistook you for my brother. You look very similar.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To misunderstand (someone).
    • Miſtake me not, my Lord, ’tis not my meaning / To raze one Title of your Honour out.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
  3. (intransitive, obsolete) To commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong.
    • Impoſe me to what penance your inuention / Can lay vpon my ſinne, yet ſinn’d I not / But in miſtaking.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  4. (obsolete, rare) To take or choose wrongly.
    • The better act of purposes mistook / Is to mistake again; though indirect, / Yet indirection thereby grows direct,c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

See all 6 meanings of mistake

Forms of mistaken

comparativemore mistaken
superlativemost mistaken

Origin of mistaken

Morphologically mistake + -n.

Words formed from mistaken

Phrases with mistaken

Words that rhyme with mistaken

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about mistaken

What does mistaken mean?
Mistaken means erroneous.
What is mistaken the past participle of?
Mistaken is the past participle of mistake.
What part of speech is mistaken?
Mistaken is an adjective.
How do you pronounce mistaken?
Mistaken is pronounced /mɪˈsteɪkn̩/.

Words near mistaken in the dictionary

  1. mistaked
  2. mistakedly
  3. mistakeful
  4. mistakeless
  5. mistakelessness
  6. mistaken
  7. mistaken identities
  8. mistaken identity
  9. mistaken windmills for giants
  10. mistakenly
  11. mistakenness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mistaken (page history and authors); mistake (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: en-us-mistaken.ogg.

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