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to misstate

to misstate

14 6.2
To say or report something that is not correct
  • verb
  • /ˌmɪsˈsteɪt/
translation icon : informar incorrectamente
  • Have I misstated any of the facts?

He was bragging about his record on guns and once again he misstated the facts.

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Examples

  • An earlier version of this text misstated that Rice was the first African American secretary of state.

    Blog text (24)
  • Current estimates put the fraud at $11 billion in misstated income.

    Academic text (2004)
  • An earlier version of this post misstated the volunteer policy of the organization New York Cares.

    Blog text (3)
  • Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated the proportion of full professors who are women.

    Blog text (6)
  • And I misstated the twin prime conjecture.

  • The most common objection during final argument is, "Objection, your honor, counsel is misstating the evidence."

    Academic text (2005)
  • WorldCom admits that it had misstated its earnings by $3.8 billion.

    Academic text (2004)
  • An earlier version of this post misstated the name of the author of "Zombie Nouns."

    Blog text (12)
  • A previous version of this text misstated the status of Idaho's mandatory ultrasound bill legislation.

    Blog text (17)
  • The report mistakenly misstates the budget figures, leading to confusion among the committee members.

Synonyms

to misrepresent
vsto misstate
71 6.9

Give a false story about someone or something to trick people

expresses information inaccurately but without necessarily intending deception
to mischaracterize
vsto misstate
  • US
10 8.0

To describe a person or thing unfairly

expresses facts inaccurately generally, not only about character or qualities
to misspeak
vsto misstate
5 5.6

To say something wrong by mistake

expresses or reports inaccurately in any medium, not only spoken slips
to misdescribe
vsto misstate
1 6.3

Say something about a person or thing that is not correct

expresses information inaccurately in any form rather than only descriptive errors

How Inaccurate

to falsify
  • Formal
44 7.3
to misstate
14 6.2
to misquote
3 5.5

Surface Forms

misstate infinitive
misstating present participle
misstates third person singular
misstated past
misstated past participle

Morphology

misstate = state (transparent) = mis + state

The verb is formed by productive English prefixation (mis- 'wrongly' or 'incorrectly') added to the verb 'state', yielding the expected meaning 'state incorrectly'.

Etymology

Misstate comes from the prefix mis- meaning 'wrong' and the verb state meaning 'to say', just like in statement. So to misstate is to 'say' something wrongly, which is why it means to report or express something inaccurately.