improperly

adverb

as in incorrectly
in a mistaken or inappropriate way the manufacturer's warranty is no longer valid if the appliance is used improperly

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

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.
Recent Examples of improperly The judge is accused of improperly threatening to jail the DA and two other county prosecutors. — Aj Willingham, AJC.com, 30 July 2026 The filing also claims that her case was improperly transferred from juvenile court to adult court, alleging that her trial and conviction ultimately violated her constitutional rights. — Chris Spargo, PEOPLE, 29 July 2026 Meanwhile, the owner of the carriage involved in the fatal crash suspended the driver indefinitely and plans to retire the horse, according to union officials, who said the driver improperly dismounted to take a photograph of his passengers. — Barry Williams, New York Daily News, 25 July 2026 The now-former officer, Edgar Garcia Cancino, was part of a San Fernando Valley anti-gang unit whose members were alleged to have improperly pulled over and searched hundreds of motorists. — Los Angeles Times, 24 July 2026 An Alameda County Superior Court judge last year ruled that the dozens of plaintiffs in each case had been improperly joined together. — Ethan Baron, Mercury News, 24 July 2026 Sherrill said those who improperly cast votes were registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated. — Sarah D. Wire, USA Today, 24 July 2026 The discussion, according to Oberding, focused on the argument that the school had improperly invoked the House settlement as justification for the program’s elimination. — Daniel Libit, Sportico.com, 23 July 2026 The White House alleged that Moonshot improperly used Nvidia chips and Anthropic’s Fable model to create Kimi K3, whose advanced capabilities caused a US tech selloff last week reminiscent of the DeepSeek shock. — Brendan Ruberry, semafor.com, 22 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for improperly
  1. incorrectly
  2. mistakenly
  3. erroneously
  4. inappropriately
Adverb
  • Reuters — The US Federal Aviation Administration said on Monday that seats on hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX jets registered in the US were incorrectly installed and need to be fixed.
    — CNN Money, CNN Money, 28 July 2026
  • Senior engineering judgment—the ability to spot a bad architecture, understand why a system will fail under load, know when a business rule has been encoded incorrectly—has always been built through years of junior-level struggle.
    — Vaibhav Gujral, Forbes.com, 28 July 2026
Definition of incorrectly
Adverb
  • Many brands mistakenly prioritize persuasive messaging without first earning customer consideration.
    — Sonia Thompson, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
  • In fact, the testing partner Irregular mistakenly made such access available.
    — Dan Goodin, ArsTechnica, 31 July 2026
Definition of mistakenly
Adverb
  • Jennifer Ruffcorn, spokesperson for Texas Health and Human Services, confirmed that Livingston was erroneously enrolled in Healthy Texas Women.
    — Rachana Pradhan, NPR, 20 July 2026
  • Knappman — the man who reached out to Baldwin last year to fine Anna’s grave — said his grandmother, Maude, erroneously told him that her parents died in a fire in Baltimore.
    — John Moritz, Hartford Courant, 20 July 2026
Definition of erroneously
Adverb
  • The attempt by former HFPA members to leverage the Golden Globe Foundation, an independent nonprofit, simply to secure Golden Globes tickets is an unfortunate distraction that inappropriately diverts resources from legitimate charitable causes.
    — Ted Johnson, Deadline, 28 July 2026
  • The mother wrote in the complaint that Duffey had convinced her daughter to come to his hotel room on a trip and touched her inappropriately, sent her inappropriate messages and paid her to stay quiet about it.
    — Rachel Hale, USA Today, 28 July 2026
Definition of inappropriately

Browse Nearby Words

improper
improperly
improperness
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Cite this Entry

“Improperly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/improperly. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

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