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
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
The near miss by the large Apophis asteroid in April 2029 offers NASA a golden—and exceedingly rare—opportunity to observe such an object like this up close.
—
ArsTechnica, 27 June 2025
Social media users were left horrified by Rawls's near miss with the deadly cone snail, leading to more than 7,000 comments on her TikTok post.
—Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 June 2025
Mickey Lotus, Pete’s son, was around for some of the near misses.
—Steve Millar, Chicago Tribune, 14 June 2025
Bryan Bedford faced tough questions in the confirmation hearing, which comes after January's deadly midair collision in Washington and a string of other crashes and near misses since then.
—Arkansas Online, 12 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for near miss
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
ArsTechnica, 27 June 2025
Social media users were left horrified by Rawls's near miss with the deadly cone snail, leading to more than 7,000 comments on her TikTok post.
—Alyce Collins, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 June 2025
Mickey Lotus, Pete’s son, was around for some of the near misses.
—Steve Millar, Chicago Tribune, 14 June 2025
Bryan Bedford faced tough questions in the confirmation hearing, which comes after January's deadly midair collision in Washington and a string of other crashes and near misses since then.
—Arkansas Online, 12 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for near miss
Cite this Entry
“Near miss.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/near%20miss. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share