misnomer en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- audio -
- /ˌmɪsˈnoʊməɹ/ (General-American)
- (General-American) audio
- /(ˌ)mɪsˈnəʊmə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
The noun is derived from Late Middle English misnoumer (“(law) mistaken identification of a person; plea based on such misidentification”), from Anglo-Norman mesnomer, a noun use of Anglo-Norman mesnomer, mesnommer, and Old French mesnomer, mesnommer (“to name incorrectly”), from mes- (prefix meaning ‘badly, wrongly’) + nomer, nommer (“to name”) (from Latin nōmināre, the present active infinitive of nōminō (“to name”), from nōmen (“name”) (from Proto-Indo-European *h₁nómn̥ (“name”)) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs)). The verb is derived from the noun.
Meanings
- A mistake in the naming of a person or place; a misidentification.
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(broadly) An incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading; a misname.
Rewilding[…]is also a misnomer, for whether by getting rid of tens of thousands of sheep in Patagonia or introducing a living species as a surrogate for an extinct one – Sayaguesa cattle in place of aurochs in Croatia’s Velebit Mountains, for instance – rewilding requires more human intervention than its name suggests.
2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Jan 2026:[…] plaintiff's misstyling himself as corporation in initial complaint constituted case of misnomer.
1994, Illinois. Appellate Court, Stephen Davis Porter, Illinois Appellate reports, page 257:
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(broadly) A term which is misleading, even if firmly established, technically correct, or both.
The word blackboard as applied to green or brown chalkboards is a misnomer but is not incorrect, as the broad sense of the word is idiomatic.
The name Chinese checkers is a misnomer since the game has nothing to do with China.
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(broadly, nonstandard, proscribed) Something which is asserted not to be true; a mistaken belief, a falsehood, a myth.
It’s a misnomer that all doctors have bad handwriting.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| misnomers | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Antonyms
Deriveds
misnomered · misnominal · misnome
Relateds
Translations (21)
ja 誤称 (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · it denominazione impropria (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · hu tévedés (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · hu névcsere (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · nl verkeerde naam (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · de Namensirrtum (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · de Falschbezeichnung (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · tr uygunsuz adlandırma (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · el ακυριολεξία (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · hu névtévesztés (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · de irreführende Bezeichnung (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · tr yanlış adlandırma (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · es mala designación/denominación (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · cmn 誤稱 /误称 (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · hu névhiba (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · is rangnefni (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · de unpassende Bezeichnung (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · es mal descriptor (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · ko 오칭 (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · de Fehlbezeichnung (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading) · de Fehlbenennung (incorrect use of a term, especially one which is misleading)