Synonyms of mistook

mistook

verb

past tense of mistake

1

as in misunderstood

to fail to understand the true or actual meaning of

the auctioneer mistook my nod for a bid, and I ended up buying a painting I don't even like

Synonyms & Similar Words

• misunderstood
• missed
• misread
• misconstrued
• misperceived
• misinterpreted
• misapprehended
• misjudged
• misconceived
• misknew
• misheard
• misdeemed

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• saw
• knew
• got
• caught
• understood
• perceived
• seized
• penetrated
• conceived
• grasped
• apprehended
• appreciated
• comprehended
• made out
• took in
• fathomed
• grokked
• savvied

2

as in misjudged

to make an incorrect judgment regarding

you seriously mistake me if you think I scare so easily

Synonyms & Similar Words

• misunderstood
• misjudged
• underestimated
• miscalculated
• misconceived
• mismeasured
• misconstrued
• misestimated
• misperceived
• misgauged
• misdeemed
• misinterpreted
• overestimated
• misapprehended
• overrated
• overvalued
• miscounted
• undervalued
• underrated
• misknew
• misesteemed
• misreckoned

3

as in confused

to fail to differentiate (a thing) from something similar or related

she mistook physical attraction for love

Synonyms & Similar Words

• confused
• conflated
• confounded
• mixed (up)
• misidentified
• misapplied
• lumped (together)
• misnamed
• miscalled

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• separated
• distinguished
• differentiated
• discriminated
• differenced

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of mistook

When one of the Fox sportscasters mistook Matt Damon for Brad Pitt, several news organizations mistakenly reported that Pitt was there. — Bobby Allyn, NPR, 13 Aug. 2026

In that are shades of Woodstock 1994, where Green Day and the crowd flung mud at each other, and Dirnt wound up getting his front teeth knocked out by a security guard who mistook him for a fan. — Brian Truitt, USA Today, 12 Aug. 2026

Reflecting on the album in a 2008 interview with SPIN, Costello said people mistook the confrontational pose for genuine swagger. — Spin Staff, SPIN, 4 Aug. 2026

Kikuko sometimes mistook Shigejiro’s cheerfulness for egoism owing to the distortions produced by her illness. — Cynthia Zarin, Harpers Magazine, 4 Aug. 2026

The Odyssey star Samantha Morton claimed in an interview published Monday that Vincent Ward, director of her 2005 period drama River Queen, mistook her for her fellow English screen star Emily Watson while on set. — Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 4 Aug. 2026

In a March 2024 interview with Irish radio station U105, Ferguson shared that her daughter with Gainer once mistook her father for her Dune co-star, Timothée Chalamet. — Giovana Gelhoren, InStyle, 4 Aug. 2026

In a moment well documented over the decades, one of the hunters mistook LeMond for a duck and shot him. — Tom Campbell, New York Times, 1 Aug. 2026

Chris Lowe, a professor of marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, said the single-bite attack was consistent with his theory that a great white shark mistook Fox for a seal or sea lion. — Ethan Baron, Mercury News, 30 July 2026