mis-
"mis" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mis-” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prefix. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Bad or wrong; badly or wrongly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mis · mis- · English
mis- · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "M" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mis- |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Prefix |
| Letters | 4 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “mis-” in English
Rare enough to double-check
mis- is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as aprefix. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 5 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for mis- in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English mys-, mis-, from Old English mis- (“mis-”), from Proto-West Germanic *missa-, from Proto-Germanic *missa- (“wrongly, badly, mis-”), from the adjective *missaz (whence also miss), from Proto-Indo-European *mitˢtós (“mutual, reciprocal”), … The correct English form is mis-, spelled M-I-S--.
Definition
- 1Bad or wrong; badly or wrongly.
- 2Bad or wrong; badly or wrongly.
- 3Failed; in a manner resulting in failure (to do, complete or achieve something).
- 4Unintentional, accidental, mistaken; unintentionally, accidentally, mistakenly.
- 5False, falsely.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mis- appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
misbehaviour; misspelling; to misbehave
misidentification; to misidentify
Etymology
From Middle English mys-, mis-, from Old English mis- (“mis-”), from Proto-West Germanic *missa-, from Proto-Germanic *missa- (“wrongly, badly, mis-”), from the adjective *missaz (whence also miss), from Proto-Indo-European *mitˢtós (“mutual, reciprocal”), from *meyt(h₂)- (“to replace, switch, exchange, swap”), extended from the root *mey- (“to change”). Cognate with Scots mis- (“mis-”), Dutch mis- (“mis-”), German miss-, mis- (“mis-”), Danish mis- (“mis-”), Swedish miss- (“mis-”), Icelandic mis- (“mis-”). Compare also French més-, mé- (“mis-”), from Old French mes- (“mis-”), from Frankish *mis-, *missa- (“mis-”), from the same Proto-Germanic source above.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.