miscalculate

English

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 calculate

English miscalculate

From mis- + calculate.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɪsˈkælkjʊleɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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Verb

miscalculate (third-person singular simple present miscalculates, present participle miscalculating, simple past and past participle miscalculated)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To calculate incorrectly.

   They miscalculated by assuming the dimensions were in imperial, not metric.

2. (transitive, intransitive) To make a gross error in judgment.
   • 1950 September 1, Harry S. Truman, 2:37 from the start, in MP72-73 Korea and World Peace: President Truman Reports to the People‎^[1], Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:

     Hitler and the Japanese generals miscalculated badly, 10 years ago, when they thought we would not be able to use our economic power effectively for the defeat of aggression. Let would-be aggressors make no such mistake today.

   • 2015 May 9, James Andrew Miller, “Inside the Shocking, Abrupt Divorce of Bill Simmons and ESPN”, in Vanity Fair‎^[2], archived from the original on 19 February 2016:

     In the end, one could say with minimal originality, but considerable accuracy, that Bill Simmons simply flew too close to the sun. He miscalculated how much value ESPN put on him and on his unique abilities and talents.

   • 2023 August 9, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Disinterested and dishonest”, in RAIL, number 989, page 3:

     Obsessed only with cost, 'Sir Humphrey' saw that Transport for London 'got away' with ticket office closures on the Tube with only minor public pushback and miscalculated that it could do the same on the national network. This assumption backfired spectacularly.

Derived terms

• miscalculator

Translations

incorrectly calculate

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 算错 (zh) (suàncuò) (suàncuò)

• Czech: přepočítat se
• Finnish: laskea väärin
• Ido: miskalkular (io)
• Irish: míríomh, mí-áirigh
• Japanese: 誤算する (gosan suru)
• Romanian: calcula greșit
• Spanish: calcular mal

make a gross error in judgement

• Finnish: arvioida väärin
• German: missrechnen
• Russian: просчи́тываться (ru) impf (prosčítyvatʹsja), просчита́ться (ru) pf (prosčitátʹsja)
• Spanish: juzgar mal
• Swedish: missräkna (sv)
• Ukrainian: прорахо́вуватися impf (proraxóvuvatysja), прорахува́тися pf (proraxuvátysja)