misrepresent

verb

mis·​rep·​re·​sent (ˌ)mis-ˌre-pri-ˈzent 

misrepresented; misrepresenting; misrepresents

transitive verb

1

: to give a false or misleading representation of usually with an intent to deceive or be unfair

misrepresented the facts

2

: to serve badly or improperly as a representative of

misrepresentation

(ˌ)mis-ˌre-pri-ˌzen-ˈtā-shən 

-zən-

noun

misrepresentative

(ˌ)mis-ˌre-pri-ˈzen-tə-tiv 

adjective

Synonyms

• bend
• color
• cook
• distort
• falsify
• fudge
• garble
• misinterpret
• misrelate
• misstate
• pervert
• slant
• twist
• warp

Examples of misrepresent in a Sentence

The company is accused of misrepresenting its earnings.

The movie deliberately misrepresents the facts about her life.

Recent Examples on the Web

Cooper Union, which later accused RFR of misrepresenting its financial situation, seemed to think so, too. —Kim Velsey, Curbed, 19 Dec. 2024

In particular, Ozy co-founder and chief operating officer Samir Rao had misrepresented himself on a call with Goldman Sachs by pretending to be a YouTube executive, Alex Piper. —Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 17 Dec. 2024

And anyone claiming to have a manuscript is misrepresenting themselves. —Hannah Sacks, People.com, 16 Dec. 2024

The clip in the Instagram post also came from the news conference, and the English-language post misrepresents the contents of Sheinbaum's remarks. —Nate Trela, USA TODAY, 10 Dec. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1649, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

misrepresent

verb

mis·​rep·​re·​sent (ˌ)mis-ˌrep-ri-ˈzent 

: to give a false or misleading idea of

misrepresentation

(ˌ)mis-ˌrep-ri-ˌzen-ˈtā-shən 

noun

Legal Definition

misrepresent

transitive verb

mis·​rep·​re·​sent mis-ˌre-pri-ˈzent 

: to make a misrepresentation about

intransitive verb

: to make a misrepresentation

misrepresentative

-ˌre-pri-ˈzen-tə-tiv 

adjective

misrepresenter noun