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Words with the prefix mis-

mis- means “wrongly; badly”, from Old English.

15 examples of the prefix mis-

  1. misleadmis- + leadlead someone in wrong direction
  2. misusemis- + useuse something wrongly
  3. mistakemis- + taketake or understand wrongly
  4. misplacemis- + placeput something in wrong place
  5. misspellmis- + spellspell a word wrongly
  6. misreadmis- + readread or interpret wrongly
  7. misbehavemis- + behavebehave badly or improperly
  8. misprintmis- + printprint something incorrectly
  9. misjudgemis- + judgejudge or assess wrongly
  10. misquotemis- + quoterepeat someone's words inaccurately
  11. mismanagemis- + managemanage something badly
  12. misconductmis- + conductbad or improper behavior
  13. misfortunemis- + fortunebad luck or miserable chance
  14. misinterpretmis- + interpretinterpret or understand wrongly
  15. miscalculatemis- + calculatecalculate or estimate wrongly

How mis- works

The prefix 'mis-' attaches to verbs, nouns, and adjectives without changing the part of speech, simply adding the sense of 'wrongly' or 'badly.' Unlike in-/im-/il-/ir-, 'mis-' does not assimilate to the following consonant, so the base word is always left intact—even when it begins with 's', producing a double letter as in 'misspell'.

Watch out: Words like 'miss,' 'mist,' 'miser,' and 'misery' look as though they contain 'mis-' but do not—they are unrelated root words with no separable prefix.

To see prefixes combine with other parts, try the word dissector and root builder, or test yourself in the vocabulary quiz.

Other common prefixes

Questions people ask

What does the prefix mis- mean?

mis- means “wrongly; badly”. It comes from Old English. The prefix 'mis-' attaches to verbs, nouns, and adjectives without changing the part of speech, simply adding the sense of 'wrongly' or 'badly.' Unlike in-/im-/il-/ir-, 'mis-' does not assimilate to the following consonant, so the base word is always left intact—even when it begins with 's', producing a double letter as in 'misspell'.

What are some examples of words with the prefix mis-?

mislead, misuse, mistake, misplace, misspell, misread, misbehave, misprint. The full list of 15 examples, with what each one literally means, is above.

Which words look like they have the prefix mis- but don’t?

Words like 'miss,' 'mist,' 'miser,' and 'misery' look as though they contain 'mis-' but do not—they are unrelated root words with no separable prefix.

What is a prefix?

A prefix is a word part added to the front of a base word or root to change its meaning, like un- in unhappy or re- in rewrite. It does not usually change the part of speech.