Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to misattribute

to misattribute

1 7.4
To say someone wrote or did something when they did not
  • verb
  • /ˌmɪsˈætɪbjuːt/
translation icon : atribuir erróneamente
  • She misattributed the success of the project to the wrong team members during her presentation.

At this point, we're ready to move out into other thinkers who have often been misquoted or misattributed.

Examples

  • By not acknowledging that there are different interpretations of the same events, the naive realist misattributes the other side's words and deeds, thus holding the other side solely responsible for problems encountered.

    Academic text (2006)

  • A commenter pointed out that I've misattributed to CSN what should rightly be credited to Stills.

    Blog text (2)

  • Without awareness of this possibility, it would be all too easy to misattribute the qualities of classroom interactions to teacher skill levels.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Even worse, some lost or misattributed votes could go completely undetected.

    Blog text (8)

  • However, the quote was misattributed in the film, and the line was given to the actor playing General Norman Cota.

    Blog text (25)

  • Check out Snopes; it's full of misattributed Mark Twain quotes.

    Blog text (23)

  • Failure to account for prior year test scores would thus misattribute variance in student achievement that would be more directly accounted for by background student proficiencies.

    Academic text (2013)

  • Laneuville inherited this formula from his master, and he followed it so faithfully that his best portraits have invariably been misattributed to David.

    Academic text (2011)

  • "To focus exclusively on the consequences of a youth's homoeroticism, researchers risk misattributing normal adolescent experiences to sexual orientation," Savin-Williams writes in his book.

    Academic text (2004)

  • The journalist misattributed the famous quote to the wrong author, causing confusion among readers.

Synonyms

to putting words in someone's mouth
vsto misattribute
  • Informal
1 8.0

To claim someone said something they did not say

wrongly credits someone with saying or producing something they did not do
to miscredit
vsto misattribute
8.2

To say the wrong person made something or not name the real maker

wrongly says someone created or supplied something rather than crediting accurately
to miscite
vsto misattribute
  • Jargon
8.0

To give wrong details about a source

wrongly names someone as creator or source rather than accurately identifying origin

How Accurate

to confirm
∞ 1.8
to attribute
228 3.8
to misattribute
1 7.4
to speculate
254 4.8

Surface Forms

misattribute infinitive
misattributed past
misattributed past participle
misattributing present participle
misattributes third person singular

Morphology

misattribute = attribute (transparent) = mis + attribute

Formed by productive prefix 'mis-' (wrongly) + the verb 'attribute'; meaning 'to attribute wrongly' is directly derivable.

Etymology

Misattribute is made of the part mis- meaning 'wrong' and the word attribute meaning 'to say who made or is responsible for something'. So to misattribute something is to 'wrongly say' that someone is its author or source.