misguided

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

Examples of misguided in a Sentence

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

More often than not, schools don’t intervene effectively, sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes as a result of misguided pedagogy, sometimes for fear of incurring instructional or legal costs. —David Owen, New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2025

During a time when data and data-driven decision making is all the rage in the workplace, leaning on intuition might sound misguided. —Preston Fore, Fortune, 19 Dec. 2025

The government is now finally backing away from a misguided position about the risks of pot. —Nicholas Florko, The Atlantic, 19 Dec. 2025

Opposition to Republican plan Democratic leaders dismissed the Republican proposals as misguided and ineffective. —David Lightman, Sacbee.com, 15 Dec. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1500, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for misguided

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