misidentify

verb

mis·​iden·​ti·​fy ˌmis-ī-ˈden-tə-ˌfī 

-ə-ˈden-

misidentified; misidentifying

transitive verb

: to identify (someone or something) incorrectly

… a coroner apparently misidentified the bullet he removed from the victim, stating that its caliber differed from that of the bullet entered as evidence against the known shooter.

—David Fisher

While examining the American Museum's collection, I came across a mongoose specimen that was clearly misidentified.

—W. Chris Wozencraft

Examples of misidentify in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

But in reality, the system misidentifies common birds, cameras miss the clarity to distinguish plumage and detail, and battery life proves too short for real daily use. —Sixteen Ramos, USA Today, 4 July 2025

One notable example of AI bias occurred with facial recognition technology, which was found to misidentify individuals with darker skin tones at disproportionately higher rates. —Jessica Smith, Time, 6 June 2025

An autonomous military drone that misidentifies a target could put civilians’ lives in danger. —Anna Choi, The Conversation, 21 Mar. 2025

Picture a predictive maintenance system misidentifying a non-existent issue in a vital machine. —Lucian Boldea, Forbes.com, 21 May 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1867, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for misidentify

• canaliculi
• dwi
• micronuclei
• oversimplify
• abscissae
• alibi
• alkali
• alumni
• amoebae
• amplify
• annuli
• beautify