misnomer
English
Etymology
From Middle English misnoumer, from Anglo-Norman mesnomer, noun use of Anglo-Norman and Old French verb mesnomer (“to name incorrectly”), from mes- (“mis-”) + nomer (“to name”) (from Latin nōmināre).
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /mɪsˈnəʊmə/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /mɪsˈnoʊmɚ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -əʊmə(ɹ)
Noun
misnomer (plural misnomers)
- A use of a term that is misleading; a misname.
- Synonym: misname
- Calling it a driveway is a bit of a misnomer, since you don't drive on it, you park on it.
- 2020 February 25, Christopher de Bellaigue, “The end of farming?”, in The Guardian[1]:
- 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.
- 1994, Illinois. Appellate Court, Stephen Davis Porter, Illinois Appellate reports (page 257)
- […] plaintiff's misstyling himself as corporation in initial complaint constituted case of misnomer.
- A term that is misleading, even if it may not be incorrect.
- The name Chinese checkers is a misnomer since the game has nothing to do with China.
- 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.
- A term whose sense in common usage conflicts with a technical sense.
- (proscribed, nonstandard) something asserted not to be true; a myth or mistaken belief
- It's a misnomer that engineers can't write.
Translations
use of term that is misleading
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misleading term
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term whose sense in common usage conflicts with a technical sense
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Antonyms
See also
Verb
misnomer (third-person singular simple present misnomers, present participle misnomering, simple past and past participle misnomered)
- (transitive) To use a misleading term; to misname.
References
- “misnomer”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/əʊmə(ɹ)
- Rhymes:English/əʊmə(ɹ)/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English proscribed terms
- English nonstandard terms
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs