as in to misstate
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Recent Examples of misspeak
The health secretary also appeared to misspeak at the meeting, saying two people had died of the disease.
—
Devi Shastri and Amanda Seitz The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 27 Feb. 2025
Kennedy also seemed to misspeak in saying two people had died of measles.
—Amanda Seitz, Chicago Tribune, 26 Feb. 2025
The health secretary also appeared to misspeak at the meeting, saying two people had died of the disease.
—Devi Shastri and Amanda Seitz The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 27 Feb. 2025
These leaders don’t merely lie or misspeak or make light of life and death.
—Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 23 Oct. 2024
Walz was criticized following the Oct. 1 debate for flubbing an answer about allegedly misspeaking about being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
—Joey Nolfi, EW.com, 21 Oct. 2024
The Kremlin’s propaganda often uses instances of Biden misspeaking as proof of his ineptitude as the man in charge of Ukraine’s top military backer.
—Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 12 July 2024
Elsewhere, Claude and Angot’s mother, who had Christine out of wedlock and fought to get her father to recognize his child in a legal sense, are both similarly upbraided for misspeaking about Christine’s trauma in subtle ways, or for not being sympathetic in the right way.
—Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Feb. 2024
People are just supposed to like you — you’re not supposed to misspeak, look fat, date the wrong person, have your makeup look a different color.
—Elias Leight, Rolling Stone, 12 Feb. 2022
Devi Shastri and Amanda Seitz The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 27 Feb. 2025
Kennedy also seemed to misspeak in saying two people had died of measles.
—Amanda Seitz, Chicago Tribune, 26 Feb. 2025
The health secretary also appeared to misspeak at the meeting, saying two people had died of the disease.
—Devi Shastri and Amanda Seitz The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 27 Feb. 2025
These leaders don’t merely lie or misspeak or make light of life and death.
—Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 23 Oct. 2024
Walz was criticized following the Oct. 1 debate for flubbing an answer about allegedly misspeaking about being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
—Joey Nolfi, EW.com, 21 Oct. 2024
The Kremlin’s propaganda often uses instances of Biden misspeaking as proof of his ineptitude as the man in charge of Ukraine’s top military backer.
—Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 12 July 2024
Elsewhere, Claude and Angot’s mother, who had Christine out of wedlock and fought to get her father to recognize his child in a legal sense, are both similarly upbraided for misspeaking about Christine’s trauma in subtle ways, or for not being sympathetic in the right way.
—Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Feb. 2024
People are just supposed to like you — you’re not supposed to misspeak, look fat, date the wrong person, have your makeup look a different color.
—Elias Leight, Rolling Stone, 12 Feb. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for misspeak
Verb
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An earlier version misstated his status.—
Kevin Breuninger,
CNBC,
11 Mar. 2025
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Due to the writer’s error, an earlier version of this story misstated and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association’s position on greenhouse gas emissions standards.—
Allen Best,
The Denver Post,
10 Mar. 2025
Verb
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The response was overwhelmingly positive, though some viewers misinterpreted Stella’s behavior as nervousness.—
Ashley Vega,
People.com,
2 July 2025
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Of course, there’s always a risk that AI could misinterpret results or provide overly alarming information, so professional medical advice remains essential.—
Larry Magid,
Mercury News,
20 June 2025
Verb
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Republican lawmakers have largely rallied around Trump, accusing Democrats of misrepresenting the legislation.—
Zac Anderson,
USA Today,
2 July 2025
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The claims misrepresent both the nature and scale of violence affecting white farmers.—
Adeola Adeosun,
MSNBC Newsweek,
1 July 2025
Verb
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Anyone claiming otherwise is distorting the truth to justify and reward discriminatory behavior.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
10 July 2025
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But so have the forces pushing patients toward compounding in the first place: brand drugs priced out of reach, limited insurance coverage, and middlemen who distort access.—
Sindhya Valloppillil,
Forbes.com,
8 July 2025
Verb
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The Limits of Expansion Since mathematicians began studying expander graphs in the 1960s, they’ve been used to model the brain (opens a new tab), perform statistical analyses, and build error-correcting codes — encrypted messages that can be read even if they get garbled in transmission.—
Leila Sloman,
Quanta Magazine,
18 Apr. 2025
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Data-poisoning tools like Nightshade, which can garble some AI outputs, may be a more effective solution for concerned artists.—
Kate Irwin,
PCMAG,
8 Oct. 2024
Verb
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Also, the data report was later found to be falsified.—
Terri Levien,
The Conversation,
25 June 2025
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Trump was convicted in May 2024 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair accusations threatened to upend his 2016 presidential campaign.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
12 June 2025
Verb
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Wyoming’s wildlife agency, for example, traps and relocates conflict bears (or kills problem bears if allowed by the Fish and Wildlife Service), knocks on doors to calm nervous landowners, hands out bear spray, and reminds campers not to cook chili in their tents.—
Christine Peterson,
Wired News,
5 July 2025
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His brother, Erick Garcia, 20, said his mom and aunt had gone to cook more tamales in hopes of selling more throughout the day. Exhausted, Chris sat on a fold-out chair for a moment, letting out a sigh of relief and massaging his eyebrows with his fingers.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 July 2025
Verb
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You’d like your government to tell you the truth, and the government dissembled repeatedly after the raid about what the rules of engagement were.—
Aryeh Neier,
The New York Review of Books,
3 Mar. 2025
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Pushing back on reporters, at the time Scher often dissembled and appeared to brush aside concerns about what was clearly an increasingly out-of-control situation.—
Gil Kaufman,
Billboard,
19 July 2024
Cite this Entry
“Misspeak.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misspeak. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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