mistaking
mistaking is the present participle and gerund of mistake.
Meaning of mistake
Verb
mistake (third-person singular simple present mistakes, present participle mistaking, simple past mistook, past participle mistaken)
- To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
- Sorry, I mistook you for my brother. You look very similar.
- 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...
- 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]...
- 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]...
Noun
mistaking (plural mistakings)
- A mistake.
- I prithee,
Remember, I have done thee worthy service;
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served
Without grudge or grumblings: […]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published... - Now, that you may escape general mistaking in the election of your Bow, I will giue you some Rules and Notions, which if you forget not, shall preuent many mistakings.1634, Gervase Markham, chapter 7, in The Art of Archerie, London: Ben Fisher, page 52
- I prithee,
Forms of mistaking
| plural | mistakings |
|---|
Words formed from mistaking
Phrases with mistaking
Questions about mistaking
- What does mistaking mean?
- Mistaking means a mistake.
- What is mistaking the present participle and gerund of?
- Mistaking is the present participle and gerund of mistake.
- What part of speech is mistaking?
- Mistaking is a noun.
- What is the plural of mistaking?
- The plural of mistaking is mistakings.
Words near mistaking in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mistaking (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.
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Cite this entry: “mistaking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mistaking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.