near miss

noun

variants or less commonly near-miss

1

a

: a miss (as with a bomb) close enough to cause damage

b

: something that falls just short of success

2

a

: a near collision (as between aircraft)

b

: close call

Synonyms of near miss

• narrow escape
• close call
• hairbreadth escape
• close shave
• near escape

Examples of near miss in a Sentence

After years of near misses, the team has finally won a championship.

a near miss with death prompted him to give up skydiving

Recent Examples on the Web

Bus driver describes near miss CBS News Miami spoke exclusively with a bus driver who says one of the cars sped around his bus just seconds before the impact. —Nikiya Carrero, CBS News, 13 Dec. 2025

The Toronto Blue Jays' near miss in Game 7 of the World Series seems to be fueling their desire to dominate the Major League Baseball offseason. —Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Dec. 2025

Crash data already exists and has been available, but Matchett said the near miss data provided by the sensors adds an extra dimension of the circumstances that might precipitate a collision. —Tyler Faurot, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Nov. 2025

The game was full of big plays, near misses and intense action, and Star photographers were on the sideline to capture it all. —Kansas City Star, 23 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1940, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Rhymes for near miss

• abyss
• amiss
• chlamys
• dismiss
• premiss
• remiss
• bis
• bliss
• criss
• dis
• diss
• hiss