remiss
/ɹəˈmɪs/adjective
remiss is an adjective meaning “At fault; failing to fulfill responsibility, duty, or obligations” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled R-E-M-I-S-S and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 2 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does remiss mean?
adjective
- 1
At fault; failing to fulfill responsibility, duty, or obligations.
It would be remiss of me, in my duties, if I did not give credit where credit was due.
- 2
Not energetic or exact in duty or business; careless; tardy; slack; hence, lacking earnestness or activity; languid; slow.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce remiss?
- /ɹəˈmɪs/
Remiss has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-remiss.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
How common is remiss?
Remiss appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 45,947th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Remiss in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| German | verantwortungslos , nachlässig, träge |
| Spanish | remiso, no poner atención, negligente, disperso , flojo, descuidado |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does remiss come from?
From Middle English remisse, remysse, from Latin remissus (“languid, negligent”), perfect passive participle of remittō (“remit”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).