misunderstanding

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A failure to understand something correctly; a mistaken idea about its meaning.

   There was a misunderstanding about the time of the meeting.

2. 2
   noun

   A small disagreement or argument.

   The quarrel started from a silly misunderstanding between the two friends.

From Middle English mys undirstonding, equivalent to misunderstand + -ing. Compare Dutch misverstand (“misunderstanding”), German Missverständnis (“misunderstanding”), Swedish missförstånd (“misunderstanding”).

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