inaptly

adverb

as in mistakenly
in a mistaken or inappropriate way the development was inaptly named Apple Orchard Condominiums, presumably in honor of what was destroyed in order to build them

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for inaptly
  1. mistakenly
  2. incorrectly
  3. erroneously
  4. inaccurately
Adverb
  • That’s given enrollees little time to react, including to respond if the state was mistakenly ending their coverage.
    — Phil Galewitz, Miami Herald, 30 Sep. 2026
  • The painting was mistakenly attributed to Carel Fabritius in 1904 by an American dealer and sold for $160 (equivalent to about $6,000 today).
    — News Desk, Artforum, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of mistakenly
Adverb
  • Many Montanans who were financially eligible lost Medicaid coverage for technical reasons, such as incorrectly filling out paperwork — roughly 87,000, according to state data from two years ago.
    — Aaron Bolton, NPR, 30 Sep. 2026
  • An earlier version of this story incorrectly named the horse ridden by Avery Kucan.
    — Robert McCoppin, Chicago Tribune, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of incorrectly
Adverb
  • The officer was responding to a mental health crisis call, involving what was erroneously reported as fireworks but turned out to be gunfire, authorities said.
    — Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 4 Sep. 2026
  • The certification for this device was granted erroneously and has been set aside by the FCC and removed from our public database.
    — Jim Fisher, PC Magazine, 22 Aug. 2026
Definition of erroneously
Adverb
  • In 2011, Kobach was fined $5,000 by the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission — KPDC’s precursor — for inaccurately reporting more than $75,000 in contributions and expenditures during the 2010 election.
    — Cuyler Dunn, Kansas City Star, 18 Sep. 2026
  • Many lawyers have been caught citing fake cases in briefs or inaccurately describing real cases.
    — Jon Brodkin, ArsTechnica, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of inaccurately
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.

Browse Nearby Words

inaptitudes
inaptly
inaptness
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Inaptly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inaptly. Accessed 3 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of tittle

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 2

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All