misused
adjective
Simple meaning
Used incorrectly or carelessly or for an improper purpose.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mihsyoozdSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
mɪsˈjuzd
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.
adjective
Used incorrectly or carelessly or for an improper purpose
“Misused words are often laughable but one weeps for misused talents.”
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Used incorrectly or carelessly or for an improper purpose
Used this way, misused is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in technical or specialist writing contexts.
“Misused words are often laughable but one weeps for misused talents.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use misused
- “Misused words are often laughable but one weeps for misused talents.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Apply to a wrong thing or person.
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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.