misstatement

M3I1S1S1T1A1T1E1M3E1N1T1

noun

Something stated wrongly; a (usually unintentionally) incorrect statement.

UncommonScrabble 16

Meanings

nounmisstatement (countable and uncountable, plural misstatements)

plural misstatements

  1. countableuncountableSomething stated wrongly; a (usually unintentionally) incorrect statement.

    his gubernatorial campaign, noteworthy mostly for his seemingly daily racist and otherwise offensive misstatements

    1990 April 7, Laura Briggs, “Silber Comes Out Against Homophobia”, in Gay Community News, page 6
    1 more example

    Again we read at page 174: “Instead of the Universal Roman Catholic Church there existed after 1650 the National Catholic Churches of Spain, France, Austria, Poland, etc. more subject to the Royal supremacy than to the Papal, not, however, so completely as in England.” This is obviously an exaggeration. There never existed in the countries mentioned, least of all in Spain, any National Catholic Church. There would not have existed any such contradictorially-named organization even in England had it not been for the lechery of Henry VIII. Other similar misstatements might be noticed here and there. The author's intention, however, to be just is patent and his success in this respect is noteworthy.

    1916 March, “Criticisms and Notes: Burgess: The Reconciliation of Government with Liberty”, in American Ecclesiastical Review, volume LIV, number 3, Philadelphia: The Dolphin Press, pages 373–374

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*mey-?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*meyth₂-
  3. Proto-Germanic*missaz
  4. Proto-Germanic*missa-
  5. Proto-West Germanic*missa-
  6. Old Englishmis-
  7. Middle Englishmys-
  8. Englishmis-
  9. Englishstatement
  10. Englishmisstatement

From mis- + statement.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

misstatement. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misstatement

MLA

“misstatement.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misstatement. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “misstatement,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misstatement.

Source: misstatement on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.