How to Use misunderstand in a Sentence

misunderstand

verb
  • She expressed herself in clear terms that no one could misunderstand.
  • He feels that the critics have completely misunderstood his movies.
  • Don't misunderstand me—I'm not criticizing your decision.
  • The new right laps up young and not-so-young men who feel wronged and misunderstood.
    — Laurie Penny, Longreads, 15 Feb. 2018
  • But to say that is to misunderstand the mystery of how art works.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 19 Jan. 2023
  • Much has been said about K-pop over the years and much has been misunderstood about the genre too.
    — Tim Chan, Rolling Stone, 10 Mar. 2023
  • The mole takes a lot of time, has a lot of layers that are often misunderstood.
    — Ana Sofía Peláez, NBC News, 14 June 2017
  • Critics of the column—and there are many of them—seem to misunderstand this.
    — Keith Kloor, Discover Magazine, 24 Aug. 2012
  • Much has been reported about the racial wealth gap—but much is still misunderstood.
    — Anne Branigin, The Root, 19 Apr. 2018
  • The fear is people misunderstanding what the root of the jokes is or what the funny part is.
    — Lisa Wong MacAbasco, Vogue, 20 Nov. 2023
  • That’s the thing many people still misunderstand about this amazing man.
    — Mike Bianchi, The Orlando Sentinel, 6 May 2026
  • That, too, misunderstands the law.
    — Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Fortune, 21 Jan. 2026
  • That’s the one thing that people misunderstand grossly about me.
    — Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 27 July 2023
  • Lopes said his wife’s captor had misunderstood the amount of crypto Lopes had.
    — Bruna Horvath, NBC news, 27 July 2025
  • At the time, first of all, steroids were either not understood or misunderstood.
    — Susan Slusser, SFChronicle.com, 24 Feb. 2020
  • But Cristol said Youngkin appeared to misunderstand the specifics of the bill.
    — Washington Post, 1 Mar. 2022
  • Do not rush to defend yourself if someone misunderstands your tone.
    — Tarot.com, Sun Sentinel, 29 June 2026
  • But this misunderstands the nature of the problem.
    — Deb Roy, The Atlantic, 15 Feb. 2026
  • Others misunderstand your moods as the moon and Mercury clash.
    — USA TODAY, 5 Jan. 2025
  • Both of them misunderstand in different ways how Kakeru works.
    — Vulture, 17 May 2026
  • Spacey claimed that three of the four men were lying and the fourth had simply misunderstood an awkward but harmless pass.
    — Aja Romano, Vox, 5 June 2024
  • And yet German Riesling is still one of the most misunderstood wines in the world.
    — Lettie Teague, WSJ, 5 July 2018
  • When folks aren’t in proximity, there’s lots of room to misunderstand and fear the other.
    — Duante Beddingfield, Detroit Free Press, 30 Mar. 2023
  • The rise to the top brings with it a unique set of challenges and pressures, often misunderstood by those not walking the same path.
    — Patrice Ford Lyn, Forbes, 16 Feb. 2024
  • But the show is more about the unique nightmare of being hated and misunderstood by everyone around you.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 3 Oct. 2019
  • And Venter was easy to misunderstand.
    — Matthew Herper, STAT, 30 Apr. 2026
  • So both sides have misunderstood his constituency.
    — Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 5 Nov. 2025
  • Miller misunderstands the significance of the right of habeas corpus, for starters.
    — Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 12 May 2025
  • But this misunderstands the core of the Johnson-Cummings project.
    — Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 4 Mar. 2020
  • There is no place on the bench for someone who so deeply misunderstands the role of a judge and the administration of justice.
    — Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Newsweek, 5 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'misunderstand.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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