misunderstanding
nounUK /ˌmɪsʌndəˈstændɪŋ/ · US /ˌmɪsʌndɚˈstændɪŋ/
Etymology From Middle English mys undirstonding, equivalent to misunderstand + -ing. Compare Dutch misverstand (“misunderstanding”), German Missverständnis (“misunderstanding”), Swedish missförstånd (“misunderstanding”).
1
A mistake as to the meaning of something or a specific point of view; erroneous interpretation or comprehension; misconception.
- The worst distance between two people is misunderstanding. - Thoughtkick
- Because of misunderstandings among certain member states of the Organization of African Unity's voices have been occasionally raised recently against the convocation of the Assembly in Accra. Nonetheless, the regular Assembly of the Heads of State and Government was, in the first place, designed to find peaceful solutions, through deliberations and frank exchange of views to such misunderstandings among member-states.1965, Haile Selassie, African Liberation Day speech:
2
A disagreement; difference of opinion; dissension; quarrel.
- It was only months and months afterwards, when I made the attempt to recover what was left of the body, that I heard the original quarrel arose from a misunderstanding about some hens.1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 198: