mischievous

adjective

mis·chie·vous ˈmis-chə-vəs

ˈmish-;

nonstandard

mis-ˈchē-vē-əs

mish-

Synonyms of mischievous next

: harmful, injurious

mischievous gossip

: able or tending to cause annoyance, trouble, or minor injury

: irresponsibly playful

mischievous behavior

mischievously adverb

mischievousness noun

Mischievous vs. Mischievious: Usage Guide

A pronunciation \mis-ˈchē-vē-əs\ and a consequent spelling mischievious are of long standing: evidence for the spelling goes back to the 16th century. Our pronunciation files contain modern attestations ranging from dialect speakers to Herbert Hoover. But both the pronunciation and the spelling are still considered nonstandard.

Examples of mischievous in a Sentence

In passing the test of killing itself if infected, cancerous or genetically mischievous, a cell by definition dies. —

Matt Ridley, Genome, 1999

… Pedro Martinez, could be found in the dugout, usually wearing sneakers instead of spikes, his tongue flying about as fiercely as one of his mischievous fastballs. —

Tom Verducci, Sports Illustrated, 11 Oct. 1999

Setsu grew, too, from a mischievous, laughing little girl into a gay, willful, pretty girl. —

Pearl S. Buck, The Big Wave, 1947

the children had been so mischievous that we had to pay the babysitter extra and then clean up the mess punished for their mischievous tricks on the neighbors

Recent Examples on the Web

These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Ferris Bueller is fun, mischievous, an expert on shortcuts. —

Matt Schubert, The Denver Post, 3 Nov. 2024 Think of eventual 2015 winner Nadiya Hussain’s use of bubblegum and cream-soda flavors to signal her playful personality after weeks of doing poorly on Technicals; instead of letting that anxiety overwhelm her, Nadiya reset her persona with those mischievous eclairs. —

Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 1 Nov. 2024 Is this just a social media experiment or a more pointed commentary on how easily consumers can be fooled? Despite being a playful, slightly mischievous example, Ethos looks to be part of a much larger trend. —

Lela London, Forbes, 15 Oct. 2024 At first, Art seems shell-shocked by Sienna’s power, but soon regains his mischievous homicidal urges. —

Dani Di Placido, Forbes, 22 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for mischievous