Misconvey

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To fail to communicate information or ideas accurately, leading to misunderstanding or incorrect interpretation; to transmit a message in a way that misleads or confuses the recipient; to express something unclearly or erroneously resulting in distorted comprehension
2. To inaccurately deliver or pass on information causing confusion or false impressions; to misrepresent or fail in conveying the intended meaning effectively; to communicate in a way that results in the receiver misunderstanding the original intent
3. To inadequately or incorrectly portray thoughts, facts, or intentions causing error in understanding; to send a message poorly such that it is misunderstood or misinterpreted; to deliver communication that obscures or alters the original meaning unintentionally or otherwise

Etymology: "Misconvey" is a plain formation: the prefix "mis-", meaning wrongly or badly, attached to "convey". "Convey" comes from the Latin "convehere", "to carry together", built from "com-" (together) and "vehere" (to carry), the same root that gives English "vehicle". So the core sense is physical transport: a convoy carries goods, and a conveyance carries people or things from one place to another. Adding "mis-" to a verb of carrying gives the image of something being delivered to the wrong place or in the wrong state. Here the thing carried is meaning, so when a message arrives garbled or distorted, the meaning has been carried badly. The word follows the same pattern as "mislead" or "misjudge", where "mis-" attaches to an everyday verb to name a failure of that action.

Synonyms: miscommunicate, misstate, misexpress, misinform, misreport

Antonyms: convey, communicate, express, inform, report