Word family noun understanding ≠ misunderstanding adjective understandable understanding misunderstood verb understand ≠ misunderstand adverb understandably
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmisunderstandmis‧un‧der‧stand /ˌmɪsʌndəˈstænd $ -ər-/ ●●○ verb (past tense and past participle misunderstood) [intransitive, transitive] UNDERSTAND#to fail to understand someone or something correctly Rachel, you must have misunderstood her! Ellie would never say something like that. Don’t misunderstand me. She’s a very nice person when you get to know her.THESAURUSmisunderstand to think that someone means one thing, when in fact they mean something elseI think you’ve misunderstood what I’m saying.Some companies appear to have misunderstood the new rules.Don’t misunderstand me - I have nothing against these people.get somebody/something wrong especially spoken to misunderstand someone or something – used especially in everyday spoken EnglishLooks like you’ve got it all wrong. You’ve got me all wrong - that’s not what I meant. Tell me if I’ve got it wrong.mistake to misunderstand someone’s intentions, and react in the wrong wayHe was a very private man, and some people mistook this for unfriendliness.I thought she wanted us to leave her alone, but I may been mistaken.misread/misjudge to wrongly believe that someone’s actions show that they have a particular opinion or feeling, or that a situation means that you should behave in particular wayThe party completely misread the mood of the voters at the last election.Eddie wondered if he should be scared, too. Maybe he had misjudged the situation.misinterpret to not understand the true meaning of someone’s actions or words, so that you believe something that is not in fact trueA lot of people misinterpreted what I was saying, and have called me a racist.Struggling with an unfamiliar language, the simplest conversations were misinterpreted.misconstrue formal to misunderstand something that someone has said or doneShe claimed that members of the press had misconstrued her comments.miss the point to not understand the main part or meaning of what someone is saying or what something is intended to doI think you’re missing the whole point of the film.If he thinks it’s all about how much profit he can make, then he’s missing the point.get the wrong end of the stick British English informal to make a mistake about one part of something that you are told, so that you understand the rest of it in completely the wrong wayMaybe I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought she was leaving him, not the other way round. → See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
misunderstand• I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood.• Such concepts are unworthy of educated people and refer to anthropomorphism which has been misunderstood.• We shall be using the term in the ordinary sense, without, we hope, any fear of being misunderstood.• Oh, I must have misunderstood. I thought we were going to meet at 11:00.• The art of that continent has often been misunderstood, or treated paternalistically.• According to Bennett, you misunderstood the reason you were dropped from the list.• Hammeed also misunderstood the simplest words.• I think she misunderstood you. 