Mismatches

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The phenomenon of differences between items that do not correspond or fit together properly creates discord between expectations and reality
2. A condition marked by the failure of certain elements to align as intended, resulting in incongruences or variances
3. Instances where two or more things do not align or correspond as expected

Etymology: "Mismatches" is simply the plural of "mismatch," a noun that also serves as a verb. The word is built from the prefix "mis-," meaning wrong or badly, attached to "match," which in turn goes back to a Middle English word for a companion or equal, a sense that survives in phrases like "a match for" someone. A mismatch is therefore literally a bad or faulty pairing, two things joined that do not suit each other. The verb and the noun developed from the same pairing of "mis-" and "match," so the two uses are closely related rather than separate coinages. In the verb sense, to mismatch is to put things together wrongly, and in the noun sense, a mismatch is the resulting ill-fitting pair. The plural form simply counts several such pairings, whether of people, objects, or data that fail to line up.

Synonyms: discrepancies, inconsistencies

Antonyms: matches