wide of the mark
idiom
: not accurate or correct : not achieving the desired result
Their estimates were completely wide of the mark.
The results of the fund-raising were wide of the mark.
Examples of wide of the mark in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
But claims from both sides that the young socialist rode a wave of working-class anger are wide of the mark.
—
Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
Suggestions the triumph in Munich was the starting point of a new era of dominance proved somewhat wide of the mark as PSG lost to Chelsea in the Club World Cup final and needed a penalty shootout to prevail over Tottenham in the European Super Cup.
—Dan Cancian, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
Right-back remains an area of need, although City sources say links with Inter’s Netherlands international full-back Denzel Dumfries, 29, are wide of the mark.
—The Athletic Uk Staff, New York Times, 7 July 2025
Early on, Humphries says, the Zestimate was frequently wide of the mark: In estimating what a house would sell for, the algorithm had a median error of 14 percent.
—IEEE Spectrum, 5 Jan. 2019
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Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
Suggestions the triumph in Munich was the starting point of a new era of dominance proved somewhat wide of the mark as PSG lost to Chelsea in the Club World Cup final and needed a penalty shootout to prevail over Tottenham in the European Super Cup.
—Dan Cancian, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
Right-back remains an area of need, although City sources say links with Inter’s Netherlands international full-back Denzel Dumfries, 29, are wide of the mark.
—The Athletic Uk Staff, New York Times, 7 July 2025
Early on, Humphries says, the Zestimate was frequently wide of the mark: In estimating what a house would sell for, the algorithm had a median error of 14 percent.
—IEEE Spectrum, 5 Jan. 2019
Cite this Entry
“Wide of the mark.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wide%20of%20the%20mark. Accessed 19 Dec. 2025.
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