misguided

1 of 2

adjective

mis·​guid·​ed (ˌ)mis-ˈgī-dəd 

: led or prompted by wrong or inappropriate motives or ideals

well-meaning but misguided do-gooders

misguidedly

(ˌ)mis-ˈgī-dəd-lē 

adverb

misguidedness

(ˌ)mis-ˈgī-dəd-nəs 

noun

misguided

2 of 2

past tense and past participle of misguide

Examples of misguided in a Sentence

Adjective

She's been getting a lot of bad advice from misguided friends.

He blames the crisis on the government's misguided economic policies.

a misguided attempt to help

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

The backlash is an understandable, if misguided, response to a number of concerning cases of police abuse. — Rafael A. Mangual, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2026

Within this literature, no decade is more doom-laden than the nineteen-thirties, when misguided hope and willful blindness led the world’s democracies to grossly underestimate the threat of Fascism. — Beverly Gage, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2026

Others are well-meaning but misguided, like fearing that talking about suicide will make things worse, or are due to a person’s lack of experience with the umbrella of suicidality (which includes suicidal thoughts, plans, attempts and deaths). — Kristen Rogers, CNN Money, 28 Sep. 2026

Their impressiveness came from their straightforwardness, their precision and generosity of flavor, without needless curlicues or misguided deconstruction. — Bill Addison, Los Angeles Times, 27 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1500, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for misguided

• abided
• collided
• confided
• decided
• derided
• divided
• elided
• lopsided
• nitrided
• presided
• provided
• resided