Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To interpret or explain wrongly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To interpret erroneously; do the work of interpreter incorrectly or falsely; understand or explain in a wrong sense.
  • Synonyms See translate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To interpret erroneously; to understand or to explain in a wrong sense.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To make an incorrect interpretation; to misunderstand.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb interpret in the wrong way
  • verb interpret falsely
  • verb interpret wrongly

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From mis- +‎ interpret.

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Examples

  • Avoiding ambiguity that requires the reader to wantonly misinterpret is less crucial than avoiding easy-to-fall-into ambiguities.

    I come to praise potential ambiguity, not to bury it « Motivated Grammar 2010

  • Avoiding ambiguity that requires the reader to wantonly misinterpret is less crucial than avoiding easy-to-fall-into ambiguities.

    2010 January « Motivated Grammar 2010

  • Snippen reports that the FAA wants to keep where and how often commercial aircraft are damaged by hitting birds as they claim the public would "misinterpret" the information.

    AIR TRAVEL AND ITS IMPACT ON CLIMATE CHANGE 2009

  • Many who believed that it wasn't religion at fault but the people who "misinterpret" it, are beginning to ask whether it might actually be the other way around.

    Ali A. Rizvi: Religious Fundamentalism Spreads... Beyond Islam 2009

  • The landlords for whom most of the campesinos work as sharecroppers do not think that peasants should be taught to read, as they may "misinterpret" the one-sided contracts they must sign in order to work.

    Mutual aid and survival in the mountains of Oaxaca 2000

  • The landlords for whom most of the campesinos work as sharecroppers do not think that peasants should be taught to read, as they may "misinterpret" the one-sided contracts they must sign in order to work.

    Mutual aid and survival in the mountains of Oaxaca 2000

  • The defense secretary said he fully supported the change in command and that allies or adversaries should not "misinterpret" the decision as a softening of Washington's commitment to the war.

    Turkish Press 2010

  • The defense secretary said he fully supported the change in command and that allies or adversaries should not "misinterpret" the decision as a softening of Washington's commitment to the war.

    Latest News - Yahoo!7 News 2010

  • The defence secretary said he fully supported the change in command and that allies or adversaries should not "misinterpret" the decision as a softening of Washington's commitment to the war.

    Channel NewsAsia Front Page News 2010

  • The defense secretary said he fully supported the change in command and that allies or adversaries should not "misinterpret" the decision as a softening of Washington's commitment to the war.

    Military Top Stories Center 2010

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