as in to misstate
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Recent Examples of misspeak
However, today, the bigger risk is not misspeaking.
—
Cheryl Robinson, Forbes.com, 12 Feb. 2026
The health secretary also appeared to misspeak at the meeting, saying two people had died of the disease.
—Devi Shastri and Amanda Seitz The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 27 Feb. 2025
Kennedy also seemed to misspeak in saying two people had died of measles.
—Amanda Seitz, Chicago Tribune, 26 Feb. 2025
These leaders don’t merely lie or misspeak or make light of life and death.
—Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 23 Oct. 2024
Walz was criticized following the Oct. 1 debate for flubbing an answer about allegedly misspeaking about being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
—Joey Nolfi, EW.com, 21 Oct. 2024
The Kremlin’s propaganda often uses instances of Biden misspeaking as proof of his ineptitude as the man in charge of Ukraine’s top military backer.
—Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 12 July 2024
Elsewhere, Claude and Angot’s mother, who had Christine out of wedlock and fought to get her father to recognize his child in a legal sense, are both similarly upbraided for misspeaking about Christine’s trauma in subtle ways, or for not being sympathetic in the right way.
—Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Feb. 2024
Cheryl Robinson, Forbes.com, 12 Feb. 2026
The health secretary also appeared to misspeak at the meeting, saying two people had died of the disease.
—Devi Shastri and Amanda Seitz The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 27 Feb. 2025
Kennedy also seemed to misspeak in saying two people had died of measles.
—Amanda Seitz, Chicago Tribune, 26 Feb. 2025
These leaders don’t merely lie or misspeak or make light of life and death.
—Megan Garber, The Atlantic, 23 Oct. 2024
Walz was criticized following the Oct. 1 debate for flubbing an answer about allegedly misspeaking about being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
—Joey Nolfi, EW.com, 21 Oct. 2024
The Kremlin’s propaganda often uses instances of Biden misspeaking as proof of his ineptitude as the man in charge of Ukraine’s top military backer.
—Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News, 12 July 2024
Elsewhere, Claude and Angot’s mother, who had Christine out of wedlock and fought to get her father to recognize his child in a legal sense, are both similarly upbraided for misspeaking about Christine’s trauma in subtle ways, or for not being sympathetic in the right way.
—Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Feb. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for misspeak
Verb
-
An earlier version misstated the time frame.—
Dan Mangan,
CNBC,
17 Apr. 2026
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Due to an editor’s error, the original version of this editorial misstated who offered to pay for Christopher Smith’s travel to Brazil.—
The Denver Post Editorial Board,
Denver Post,
16 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Chapman, in particular, noted people may have misinterpreted what Vitello said.—
Justice delos Santos,
Mercury News,
9 Apr. 2026
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Justice Department lawyers argued that Boasberg set too high a standard for prosecutors to meet at the early stages of an investigation and misinterpreted the timeline of the probe.—
Andrew Goudsward,
USA Today,
3 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Season one explores Luisa’s personal love letter to grief, the nuanced Asian American experience, and the often misrepresented people of Los Angeles.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
21 Apr. 2026
-
People who felt misrepresented by it, especially politically.—
Blair R. Fischer,
Chicago Tribune,
20 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Through immersive sound, travel, and intimate interviews, Baudelaire journeys from Benin to Haiti and across the Haitian diaspora to uncover the true story of Vodou — a story of resistance, faith, and cultural survival that’s often been distorted by fear and colonial mythmaking.—
Ryan Lattanzio,
IndieWire,
21 Apr. 2026
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This also distorts the definition of what success for these programs would look like.—
Catherine Thorbecke,
Boston Herald,
18 Apr. 2026
Verb
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In announcing them, Trump grew so loud that the audio feed spiked in a way that left his words garbled.—
Philip Elliott,
Time,
25 Feb. 2026
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The Limits of Expansion Since mathematicians began studying expander graphs in the 1960s, they’ve been used to model the brain (opens a new tab), perform statistical analyses, and build error-correcting codes — encrypted messages that can be read even if they get garbled in transmission.—
Leila Sloman,
Quanta Magazine,
18 Apr. 2025
Verb
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Court records indicate authorities became aware of Jones’ falsified hours through a complaint by the library’s manager, who discovered discrepancies on a log sheet required to be filled out by deputies working there.—
Cristóbal Reyes,
The Orlando Sentinel,
16 Apr. 2026
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Angelica Pacheco, a former Hialeah city councilwoman, was spared a prison term on Thursday after pleading guilty to falsifying information on her addiction treatment center’s emergency loan application to the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic.—
Jay Weaver,
Miami Herald,
16 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The kitchen had two notable features—a big cast-iron woodstove on which everything was cooked, and a dishwasher that stood up like a blockhouse, designed to receive trays two feet by two with wire-mesh bottoms and sides four inches high.—
John McPhee,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
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Allergic Reactions Gelatin is made by cooking collagen derived from animals, such as cows and pigs.—
Amber J. Tresca,
Verywell Health,
20 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Nor have the Trumps dissembled about Amazon’s payment of forty million dollars for the rights to the film—more than twice as much as the second-highest bid—with twenty-eight million reportedly flowing directly to the First Lady.—
David D. Kirkpatrick,
New Yorker,
8 Feb. 2026
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With his multi-instrumentalist bandmates, PJ Moore and co-songwriter Robert Bell, Buchanan zooms into these exchanges to prolong them or dissembles them into jagged pieces that leave the bigger picture to us.—
Sam Sodomsky,
Pitchfork,
1 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Misspeak.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/misspeak. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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