Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use misstep in a sentence

17 example sentences · noun, verb

Misstep means a step that is wrong, a false step. Example: “On a high ledge, a misstep could be fatal.”

Examples of misstep by meaning

nounA step that is wrong, a false step.

  • On a high ledge, a misstep could be fatal.
  • He remembered only to avoid a misstep and to keep his direction.1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC

nounAn error or mistake.

  • His comment was a misstep that could cost him dearly.

verbTo step badly or incorrectly.

  • My dance partner misstepped and landed on my toe.
  • Eckhart also speaks of this happening to a man who has misstepped (vertreten, as I recall); God, then, corrects the mis-swing of the man and brings him back to the Tao or Logos.2012, Philip K Dick, Jonathan Lethem, Pamela Jackson, The Exegesis of Philip K Dick

verbTo make an error or mistake.

  • I don't want to misstep by offending them.

More sentences with misstep

  • But as Siri’s many noted missteps attest, a computer really has no idea what you’re talking about.2016 October 8, Sally Adee, “It’s just common sense”, in New Scientist, number 3094, page 22. From the entry glom on
  • There are two kinds of linguistic missteps, the typos and the thinkos.2009, Geoff Nunberg, Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times, page 59. From the entry thinko
  • From the beginning her mini-campaign, with its many missteps and fumblings, seem mired in confusion.2009 January 25, Sam Tanenhaus, “A Fumbled Handoff of the Torch”, in New York Times. From the entry fumbling
  • It takes time, dedication, curiosity, and a hint of stubbornness to get past the missteps and misclicks.2005, Katrin Eismann, Wayne Palmer, Photoshop restoration and retouching. From the entry misclick
  • A misstep, mishold, a hundredth of an instant's lack of balance.1930, Virginia Tracy, The moment after - Page 231. From the entry mishold
  • For nearly the entire full four years of Frank's administration, the local media ate him alive for even the slightest misstep.2011, Stephanie Parker-Weaver, Rebirth: "A Breast Cancer Journey of Many; Survival of Few": A Mississippi Civil Rights Activist's Biggest…. From the entry eat someone alive
  • We observed occasional expressions of negative self-image, though these were mild and typically arose in response to task failures or perceived missteps rather than arising unprompted.2026 February, Anthropic, System Card: Claude Opus 4.6. From the entry unprompted
  • It never makes a misstep or misroll—and wanders around with an irresistibly comical air of going all by itself and knowing just what it is about.2022, E. M. Tappan, The Little Book of the War. From the entry misroll
  • Walking and driving seem to be examples of muscular movement toward a goal in which a misstep or mistwist occurs once in millions or billions of instances.2003, Philip Julian Runkel, People as Living Things: The Psychology of Perceptual Control, page 169. From the entry mistwist
  • In the end, the third season of Fargo stuck the landing so well that its missteps seem more like scars on fine leather than signs of a show in decline.2017 June 21, Scott Tobias, “Fargo Season 3 Finale: Bled Out”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 May 2018. From the entry stick the landing
  • Johnson’s latest misstep played out during an extraordinary and awkward 50 seconds of live television on MSNBC, where Johnson and running mate William Weld were appearing in a town hall.2016 September 29, Josh Lederman, Patrick Mairs, “Brain freeze? Gary Johnson can’t name favorite world leader”, in PBS NewsHour…. From the entry weld

Meaning of misstep

  1. noun A step that is wrong, a false step.
  2. noun An error or mistake.
  3. verb To step badly or incorrectly.

Full definition of misstep

Questions about misstep in a sentence

How do you use misstep in a sentence?
Misstep is used as a noun and verb. For example: “On a high ledge, a misstep could be fatal.”
What is a short sentence with misstep?
“I don't want to misstep by offending them.”
What does misstep mean?
Misstep means a step that is wrong, a false step.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: misstep (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use misstep in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/misstep. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.