misgovernment

noun

mis·​gov·​ern·​ment ˌmis-ˈgə-vər(n)-mənt 

-və-mənt;

-ˈgə-bᵊm-ənt,

-vᵊm-

plural misgovernments

: bad or corrupt government

It has enough oil wealth for its 32 million population to live well. But they don't, facing scarcity in critical areas—nutrition, education and health—because of serious misgovernment.

—The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Examples of misgovernment in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Yet the real-life burning of Los Angeles includes privileged-class Californians who suffer the lofty indifference of social misgovernment. —Armond White, National Review, 31 Jan. 2025

This represents a significant departure from the era of misgovernment under Arafat, when PA security forces stood by as Fatah's own military wing, the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, led a campaign of terrorism against Israel. —Ehud Yaari, Foreign Affairs, 1 Mar. 2010

War and chronic misgovernment have left 24 million Yemenis at risk of hunger and disease, and roughly 14 million are in acute need of humanitarian assistance, the United Nations says. —Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, arkansasonline.com, 18 Jan. 2024

War and chronic misgovernment have left 24 million Yemenis at risk of hunger and disease as of 2023, and roughly 14 million in acute need of assistance, the United Nations says. —TIME, 17 Jan. 2024

The Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C., a gaudy monument to presidential corruption and misgovernment, is about to be sold by the former president to new buyers. —Matt Ford, The New Republic, 14 Oct. 2021

In 2019, Trump made an impassioned, detailed — detailed in his daft way — case for a national program to build big, beautiful, perfect toilets, complaining that, after years of misgovernment under Barack Obama et al., Americans are forced to flush too many times. —Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 15 Jan. 2021

Students learned that Reconstruction was the lowest point in the American saga, a time of corruption and misgovernment caused by granting the right to vote to Black men. —Eric Foner, The New York Review of Books, 7 Sep. 2022

To the rest of the world, Sri Lanka has become a cautionary tale of misgovernment and misfortune. —Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 20 July 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1565, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for misgovernment

• nongovernment