mis-

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mis-

Where it comes from

From Middle English mys-, mis-, from Old English mis- (“mis-”), from Proto-West Germanic *missa-, from Proto-Germanic *missa- (“wrongly, badly, mis-”), from the adjective *missaz (whence also miss), from Proto-Indo-European *mitˢtós (“mutual, reciprocal”), from *meyt(h₂)- (“to replace, switch, exchange, swap”), extended from the root *mey- (“to change”).

Cognate with Scots mis- (“mis-”), Dutch mis- (“mis-”), German miss-, mis- (“mis-”), Danish mis- (“mis-”), Swedish miss- (“mis-”), Icelandic mis- (“mis-”). Compare also French més-, mé- (“mis-”), from Old French mes- (“mis-”), from Frankish *mis-, *missa- (“mis-”), from the same Proto-Germanic source above.

prefix

morpheme Bad or wrong; badly or wrongly. misbehaviour; misspelling; to misbehave
Similar: mal-
morpheme Incorrect; incorrectly. misidentification; to misidentify
Similar: mal-, para-, dis-, dys-
morpheme Failed; in a manner resulting in failure (to do, complete or achieve something). miscarriage (failed carriage of a pregnancy to term), to miscarry, to misacknowledge
Similar: dis-, dys-
morpheme Unintentional, accidental, mistaken; unintentionally, accidentally, mistakenly. Yes, I did "Buy now", but it was a misclick.
Similar: mal-
morpheme False, falsely. misaccusation, to misaccuse
Similar: pseudo-

Translations

Every language

prefix bad or wrong; badly or wrongly

Español	mal-
日本語	誤- go, -ミス misu
Français	mé-, més-
Deutsch	miss-, ver-
Ελληνικά	κακο- kako-, κατα- kata-
Русский	о- o-, обо- obo-

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MLA

"mis-." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/mis-. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

mis-. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/mis-

Chicago

"mis-." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/mis-.

BibTeX

@misc{mis_2026,
  title = {mis-},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/mis-},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}