mismatch

1 of 2

noun

mis·​match ˈmis-ˌmach 

plural mismatches

: a faulty or unsuitable match

New England plays St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI this evening, and on the face of it, this game is a mismatch, a blowout waiting to happen.

—William C. Rhoden

She is blood type O, and the donor heart and lungs she received in the first operation were blood type A. That mismatch triggered rejection by her immune system.

—Dan Vergano

mismatch

2 of 2

verb

mis·​match ˌmis-ˈmach 

mismatched; mismatching

transitive verb

: to match (two people or things) wrongly or unsuitably

Let's say that you are afraid of boring your audience. One cause is mismatching the audience's need and the level of detail you provide.

—Liz Reyer

Examples of mismatch in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

But there is often a mismatch between the reality of AI and how companies encourage you to think of their AI as magical brains that know and do everything. —Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 25 June 2024

Worse still, the CBO projects this mismatch between spending and revenue to continue through the next decade. —The Editorial Board, Orange County Register, 20 June 2024

Verb

Other complaints have included small lettering and poor spacing for names; mismatching shades of grey between jerseys and pants, and transparent material showing off ballplayers’ nether regions. —Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 29 Apr. 2024

By law, voters also have five calendar days to fix missing or mismatched signatures. —Sasha Hupka, The Arizona Republic, 19 Mar. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

Noun

1606, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1582, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

mismatch

verb

mis·​match

(ˈ)mis-ˈmach

: to match unsuitably or badly

mismatch noun