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MISUNDERSTANDING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An understanding of something that is not correct
Example:
there must be some misunderstanding--I don't have a sister
Synonyms:
misapprehension; mistake; misunderstanding
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("misunderstanding" is a kind of...):
misconception (an incorrect conception)
Derivation:
misunderstand (interpret in the wrong way)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Putting the wrong interpretation on
Example:
there was no mistaking her meaning
Synonyms:
misinterpretation; mistaking; misunderstanding
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("misunderstanding" is a kind of...):
interpretation (an explanation that results from interpreting something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "misunderstanding"):
imbroglio (a very embarrassing misunderstanding)
misconstrual; misconstruction (a kind of misinterpretation resulting from putting a wrong construction on words or actions (often deliberately))
misreading (misinterpretation caused by inaccurate reading)
Derivation:
misunderstand (interpret in the wrong way)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb misunderstand
Context examples:
But she probably had something of that in her thoughts, when alluding to the misunderstandings which he had given us hints of before.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
You will find she is some young lady who has had a misunderstanding with her friends, and has probably injudiciously left them.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Do not allow a trivial misunderstanding to wither the blossoms of spring, which, once put forth and blighted, cannot be renewed.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
There were misunderstandings between them, Emma; he said so expressly.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Excuse me, dear Mr. Copperfield, said the poor lady, giving me her hand, but I am not strong; and the removal of the late misunderstanding between Mr. Micawber and myself was at first too much for me.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The present crisis, indeed, seemed to be brought on by them; and those misunderstandings might very possibly arise from the impropriety of his conduct.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
He was here only a quarter of an hour, and in a state of agitation which did not allow the full use even of the time he could stay—but that there had been misunderstandings he decidedly said.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
After the Armistice he tried frantically to get home but some complication or misunderstanding sent him to Oxford instead.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
