mismeasure

verb

mis·​mea·​sure ˌmis-ˈme-zhər 

-ˈmā-

mismeasured; mismeasuring

transitive verb

: to measure (something) badly or incorrectly : to make a mistake in measuring

… the mahogany paneling for the storefront had been mismeasured and arrived too large for the opening and had to be sent back.

—Alan J. Heavens

In the land of Julius Caesar—a brilliant politician who nonetheless mismeasured, fatally, the temper of the Roman Senate—it is hard to fathom why, as political animals, we can never seem to ingest the most basic laws of cause and effect.

—Ingrid D. Rowland

mismeasurement

ˌmis-ˈme-zhər-mənt 

-ˈmā-

noun

plural mismeasurements

By opposing false standards of measurement in both human and animal populations—in his measured hostility to mismeasurement—[Stephen Jay] Gould will be seen as one of the last great American liberals …

—Michael Neve

Synonyms

• miscalculate
• misconceive
• misdeem
• misestimate
• misgauge
• misjudge
• mistake

Examples of mismeasure in a Sentence

the television network seriously mismeasured public reaction to the unceremonious dismissal of the popular anchorwoman

Recent Examples on the Web

Then, if all goes smoothly, a journey down the Nile — which might, after all, also be mismeasured — could be next. —Marina Dias, Washington Post, 12 June 2023

This was the quality that was mismeasured by the sensors and misinterpreted by the control unit of the Boeing 737 Max, contributing to the two crashes of that airliner. —IEEE Spectrum, 21 May 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1743, in the meaning defined above