mis-

mis- — prefix

1. joined to the start of an action verb (or the noun naming that action) to mark t

1.字首B1
釋義

joined to the start of an action verb (or the noun naming that action) to mark the action as carried out faultily — either incorrectly, with poor judgement, or with a bad outcome.

例句

Sayaka misread the timetable and waited an hour at the wrong platform.

mis- + verb = action done incorrectly

The lawyer was suspended for one year after she mishandled a client's case.

mis- + handle = manage in a faulty or wrong way

同義詞
  • mal-

    shares the 'badly' sense (malfunction, maltreat) but is more formal and Latinate; mis- feels more everyday and attaches to plain English verbs.

  • ill-

    marks something done with poor judgement (ill-advised, ill-prepared); attaches to past participles rather than to verb stems the way mis- does.

反義詞
  • well-

    marks the action done correctly or with good judgement (well-judged, well-managed) — the positive counterpart to a mis- form.

文法句型

mis- + verb

mis- + noun

用法筆記

Most often attaches to verbs of perception, judgement, or handling (read, hear, understand, judge, manage, place, treat). The combined form may be a verb (mishear, misjudge) or a noun derived from the verb (misuse, misconduct). Distinguish from related un-: un- typically reverses an action (unlock = open what was locked), while mis- says the action itself went wrong (unlock vs mislock — the second is not standard).

常見錯誤

❌I mis-walked to the meeting room.
✅I went to the wrong meeting room.
💡mis- attaches only to a closed set of verbs (read, hear, judge, place, handle, lead, treat, use); it does not freely combine with verbs of simple movement.
❌She misdrove the car into the ditch.
✅She drove the car into the ditch by mistake.
💡for one-off accidents with no fixed mis- form, use a separate phrase like 'by mistake' or 'by accident'.

mis- — abbreviation