miss
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To fail to achieve or attain.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
misIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɪs
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To fail to achieve or attain.
Fail to attend an event or activity
transitive
To fail to experience, attend, partake, take advantage of, etc.
transitive
To become aware of the loss or absence of; to feel the want or need of, sometimes with regret; to feel sadness at the absence of somebody or something.
Fail to reach or get to
transitive
To avoid or escape.
noun
A failure to obtain or accomplish something; a failure to succeed.
A title of respect for an unmarried woman with or without a name used.
A form of address, now used chiefly for an unmarried woman; used chiefly of girls before the mid-1700s, and thereafter used also of adult women without regard to marital status.
A form of address for an unmarried woman
A young female
A term of address by a student for a female teacher, especially one using their maiden name.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To fail to achieve or attain.
Used this way, miss is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Successful and accomplished
- Usage feel
- Precise and approving
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use miss
- “How could I miss that typo?”verb
- “I missed that remark.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Hypothetical organism formerly thought to be intermediate between apes and human beings.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.