Dictionary

mismanagement en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌmɪsˈmænɪd͡ʒmənt/ (US)
• (US) audio
• /ˌmɪsˈmænəd͡ʒmənt/ weak vowel merger

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *mey-? Proto-Indo-European *meyth₂-der. Proto-Germanic *missaz Proto-Germanic *missa- Proto-West Germanic *missa- Old English mis- Middle English mys- English mis- English management English mismanagement From mis- + management.

Meanings

1. (uncountable, usually) The process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly.
   • After decades of the type of mismanagement that proliferated across all the nationalised industries, the government was already aware that British Railways was in deep trouble. 2023 March 8, Howard Johnston, “Was Marples the real railway wrecker?”, in RAIL, number 978, page 50:
   • The value of the firm's stock fell precipitously when word leaked out that officers of the company were under investigation for gross mismanagement.
   • Donald Trump’s former top food safety official has accused the administration of a near “catastrophic” mismanagement of the cyclospora outbreak that has sickened thousands of people in the US. 2026 July 25, Oliver Milman, “Former FDA official says US handling of cyclospora near ‘catastrophic level’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 26 Jul 2026:
   • But, alas! for the mismanagement of fate—he was quite out of his place in the Cortez of Spain: he dilated on religious toleration to those in whose ears it sounded like blasphemy—on the blessing of knowledge, to those with whom intellect and anarchy were synonymous—and on the rights of the people, to Hidalgos, who were preux chevaliers in loyalty to their king. 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 103:
   • [...] it also charged the Newmarket Railway £600 a year for the management or rather—as the Chairman of the Newmarket Railway did not scruple to call it—the mismanagement of the line. 1941 December, Kenneth Brown, “The Newmarket & Chesterford Railway—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 533:

Forms

Translations (13)

it cattiva gestione (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · fi huono johtaminen (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · ga míbhainistíocht (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · nn vanstyre (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · nl wanbeleid (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · ga drochbhainistiú (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · de Misswirtschaft (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · nb vanstyre (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · pl niegospodarność (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · pl złe zarządzanie (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · ja 失態 (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · fr mauvaise gestion (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly) · ru бесхозя́йственность (the process or practice of managing ineptly, incompetently, or dishonestly)