mismatch

1 of 2

noun

mis·​match ˈmis-ˌmach 

plural mismatches

: a faulty or unsuitable match

New England plays St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI this evening, and on the face of it, this game is a mismatch, a blowout waiting to happen.

—William C. Rhoden

She is blood type O, and the donor heart and lungs she received in the first operation were blood type A. That mismatch triggered rejection by her immune system.

—Dan Vergano

mismatch

2 of 2

verb

mis·​match ˌmis-ˈmach 

mismatched; mismatching

transitive verb

: to match (two people or things) wrongly or unsuitably

Let's say that you are afraid of boring your audience. One cause is mismatching the audience's need and the level of detail you provide.

—Liz Reyer

Examples of mismatch in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

By age 18, major record labels came calling on Franklin, but her early time at Columbia Records proved to be a cultural and musical mismatch. —Lee Habeeb, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 Dec. 2025

That mismatch between branding and destination is a major red flag in crypto phishing attacks. —Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 9 Dec. 2025

Verb

Geffon ultimately sided with McManis and the LoBue family, but cited different legal reasoning, contending that what the prosecution and Chatman’s attorneys were asking for was essentially a pre-conviction plea deal that was mismatched with the current post-conviction status of the case. —Robert Salonga, Mercury News, 6 Dec. 2025

Big, small, hand-drawn, mismatched—the funkier the better! —Halee Miller Van Ryswyk, Better Homes & Gardens, 24 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1606, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1582, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for mismatch

• attach
• bycatch
• despatch
• detach
• dispatch
• nuthatch
• potlatch
• toothache
• bache
• batch
• brach
• catch

Kids Definition

mismatch

verb

mis·​match

(ˈ)mis-ˈmach

: to match unsuitably or badly

mismatch noun