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# misnomer

«misnomer» in Mova's school dictionary: **wrong or misleading for the thing it describes** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a misnomer, misnomers)

### meaning for a pupil

A name or word that is wrong or misleading for the thing it describes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In science and everyday life, many names are misnomers: a jellyfish is not a fish, a starfish is not a fish, peanuts are not nuts (they are legumes), koala «bears» are not bears, and lead pencils contain graphite, not lead. Spotting misnomers is great for quizzes. Phrases: «a bit of a misnomer», «a well-known misnomer».

### examples

- «Starfish» is a misnomer, because it is not a fish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#x1)
- Calling a koala a «bear» is a misnomer – it is a marsupial. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#x2)
- «Lead pencil» is a misnomer: pencils contain graphite. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#x3)
- The «Tasmanian tiger» was a misnomer: it was a marsupial, not a cat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#x4)
- Peanut is a misnomer; peanuts are legumes, like peas. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#x5)
- «Guinea pig» is a misnomer – they are not pigs and not from Guinea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#x6)
- The «quiet carriage» was a misnomer that day. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#x7)
- Our teacher loves finding misnomers in English. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/#x8)

### note

Countable: one misnomer, two misnomers. Pronounced «mis-NOH-mer». Not the same as a «misprint» or a «mispronunciation». «Mis-» = wrongly, «nomen» = name (Latin). Not a maths word.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «misnomer» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/M/misnomer/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.