Meaning

(transitive) To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To misunderstand (someone).
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong.
4. (obsolete, rare) To take or choose wrongly.
5. An error.
6. (baseball) A pitch which was intended to be pitched in a hard-to-hit location, but instead ends up in an easy-to-hit place.

Example Sentences

Sorry, I mistook you for my brother. You look very similar.

Don't mistake my kindness for weakness.

My father’s purposes have been mistook;

The reigning error of his life was, that he mistook the love for the practice of virtue, and was indeed not so much a good man, as the friend of goodness.

Because I don't want to know I didn't want to know I just didn't want to know I just didn't want Mistook the nods for an approval Just ignore the smoke and smile

Miſtake me not, my Lord, ’tis not my meaning / To raze one Title of your Honour out.

[…] at last she so evidently demonstrated her Affection to him to be much stronger than what she bore her own Son, that it was impossible to mistake her any longer.

1720, Jonathan Swift, “Letter to a Young Clergyman” in The Works of Jonathan Swift, London: Charles Elliot, 1784, Volume 10, pp. 6-7, No gentleman thinks it is safe or prudent to send a servant with a message, without repeating it more than once, and endeavouring to put it into terms brought down to the capacity of the bearer; yet, after all this care, it is frequent for servants to mistake, and sometimes occasion misunderstandings among friends […]

Word Forms

• mistakes
• mistaking
• mistook
• mistaken

Synonyms for mistake

Related Words

When Should You Use Mistake?

Use mistake when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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