miscalculate

verb

mis·​cal·​cu·​late ˌmis-ˈkal-kyə-ˌlāt 

miscalculated; miscalculating

transitive + intransitive

: to calculate wrongly : to make a miscalculation

This fall, publishers badly miscalculated the public's appetite for celebrity tell-alls.

—Patrick M. Reilly

… the bosses simply weren't ready when it turned out they had miscalculated badly.

—Kevin Drum

Synonyms

• misconceive
• misdeem
• misestimate
• misgauge
• misjudge
• mismeasure
• mistake

Examples of miscalculate in a Sentence

they miscalculated how difficult the mountainous trek would be

Recent Examples on the Web

In a blog post, Schwarcz explained that the Toxin-Free Future scientists miscalculated the lower end of what the EPA considered a health risk through a multiplication error. —Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 19 Dec. 2024

But the study authors made a math mistake, miscalculating how much of potentially toxic flame retardants a 132-pound person could safely ingest. —Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY, 18 Dec. 2024

But what caused Ingenuity to miscalculate its 72nd flight remained a mystery to NASA. —Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 11 Dec. 2024

Turkish officials likely foresaw the regime’s collapse but miscalculated how feeble Russian and Iranian backing had become. —Guney Yildiz, Forbes, 11 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1633, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

miscalculate

verb

mis·​cal·​cu·​late

(ˈ)mis-ˈkal-kyə-ˌlāt

: to calculate wrongly : make a mistake in calculation

miscalculation

ˌmis-ˌkal-kyə-ˈlā-shən

noun