Misspell

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /mɪsˈspɛl/

Definitions

1. To create a word with incorrect letter arrangement that strays from conventional spelling standards
2. To form a word by inaccurately ordering its letters, thus breaching recognized spelling norms
3. To write or type a word with letters in the wrong order or form, deviating from correct spelling

Etymology: The verb "misspell" is a plain compound: the prefix "mis-", meaning wrongly or badly, attached to "spell", which in English has meant to form words from letters since Middle English. The prefix comes down from Old English "mis-", and its ultimate ancestry reaches back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning something like "wrong" or "amiss", the same stock that gave German "miss-" and Dutch "mis-". The sense of "spell" that matters here is not the magical one. "Spell" originally meant to relate or recount, and only later narrowed to naming the letters of a word in order. Writing letters wrongly is therefore a fairly literal combination: "mis-" attaches to the act of putting letters together, and nothing more.

Synonyms: mistype, miswrite

Antonyms: spell correctly