near miss

noun

variants or less commonly near-miss

1

a

: a miss (as with a bomb) close enough to cause damage

b

: something that falls just short of success

2

a

: a near collision (as between aircraft)

b

: close call

Synonyms of near miss

• narrow escape
• close call
• hairbreadth escape
• close shave
• near escape

Examples of near miss in a Sentence

After years of near misses, the team has finally won a championship.

a near miss with death prompted him to give up skydiving

Recent Examples on the Web

This, Wright imagined, was one way Proxi might display its analysis of players’ minds, an aerial map of loves, phobias, triumphs, losses, pets, and near misses plus all the associations connecting them. —Eric Boodman, Vulture, 25 Mar. 2026

Anyone with even a passing interest in air-traffic safety knows that near misses have grown more frequent. —Juliette Kayyem, The Atlantic, 23 Mar. 2026

In December 2025 China reported a near miss between one of its satellites and a Starlink satellite. —Jonathan O'Callaghan, Scientific American, 17 Mar. 2026

More than two decades of near misses have piled substantial pressure on people within the club and the fans supporting from the outside. —Nnamdi Onyeagwara, New York Times, 16 Mar. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1940, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for near miss

• abyss
• amiss
• chlamys
• dismiss
• premiss
• remiss
• bis
• bliss
• criss
• dis
• diss
• hiss