Dictionary

wrong number en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. A telephone number dialled by mistake, for example, by transposing digits.
   • I am sorry. You have the wrong number. — Oh. Is this 555-8986? — No. This is 555-8689. — Oh. Excuse me! — Okay. Bye. 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)
2. (broadly) A telephone call received from an unfamiliar caller, due to a mistake in the number dialled.
   • - Who was that on the phone? - It was just a wrong number.
3. (dated, idiomatic) An incorrect notion or understanding concerning a person or situation.
   • The readers probably expecting me to go on about how Johnny was real nostalgic about some kind of material security. . . . Well, the readers got the wrong number. 1984, David Homel (translator), Jacques Renaud (author), Broke City (original French edition, Le cassé, 1964), p. 37 (Google preview)
   • His musical system, like the political system he served, would rescue the present moment from crisis and place it at last in productive harmony with history's demands. Boy, did he have the wrong number. 2005 February 20, Richard Taruskin, “Music: Restoring Comrade Roslavets”, in New York Times, retrieved 01 Jun 2014:
   • Codd said . . . when he had her fixed and tested her a few times he would take me up for a ride. "You got the wrong number," I says. "I don't feel flighty." 1920, Ring Lardner, The Big Town:

Forms

Hypernyms

phone number · telephone number · number

Synonyms

misunderstanding · misapprehension · misinterpretation

Translations (22)

pam aliwang numeru (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · da forkert nummer (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · ar رَقْم خَاطِئ (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · fi väärä numero (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · pl pomyłka (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · ar رَقْم غَيْر صَحِيح (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · ru непра́вильный но́мер (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · de falsche Nummer (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · ru оши́бочный но́мер (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · fr faux numéro (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · ru не тот но́мер (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · ur غلط نمبر (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · mr राँग नंबर (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · hi ग़लत नंबर (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · pam maling numeru (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · pam maling ayawus (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · pt engano (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · ja 間違い電話 (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · mr चुकीचा क्रमांक (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · bg грешен номер (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · pam aliwang ayawus (A call with a mistake in the number dialled) · es número equivocado (A call with a mistake in the number dialled)