miss

MIS/mɪs/

Verbmisses, missing, missed

Noun pluralmisses

Often confused with lose

25 meanings of miss

Practice

1
not experienceverbtransitive
To fail to attend, experience, or take advantage of something.
Don't miss this rare chance to study abroad.
He missed the entire festival because of work.
UsageTakes a noun or an -ing form: miss class, miss seeing the start (not ~~incorrect: miss to see~~).
Similarskip, forgo
Oppositeattend, catch, seize
2
want backverbtransitive
To feel sadness or longing at the absence of someone or something; to become aware of and regret a loss.
She misses her hometown most during the holidays.
Soldiers stationed abroad often miss the simple comforts of home.
Similarpine, long, yearn
Note
Two shades share this verb. One is simply noticing an absence, like the wallet left at home and missed only at the metro. The other is longing: I miss you, I miss going for walks.
3
not noticeverbtransitive
To fail to notice or perceive something; to overlook.
The editor missed several typos in the final draft.
Sharp inspectors rarely miss a hidden defect.
UsageHard to miss and you can't miss it mean easy to see.
Similaroverlook
Oppositenotice, spot, catch, detect
4
late forverbtransitive
To arrive or act too late to connect with a means of transportation, meet a deadline, or reach someone.
If the meeting runs long, she'll miss her flight home.
He missed the application deadline by a single day.
UsageYou miss a bus, train or flight; the opposite is catch. Miss a deadline by a day.
Oppositecatch, make, meet
5
fail to hitverbtransitive or intransitive
To fail to hit, catch, reach, or score with something aimed at or reached for, such as a ball, target, or goal.
The striker swung at the ball but missed by a wide margin.
Archers who miss the target by inches still lose the round.
UsageOften miss by an amount: missed by inches. Its opposite is hit.
Oppositehit, catch, score
Note
Francis Bacon's line of 1627, "Men observe when things hit, and not when they miss", already pairs it with hit, its natural opposite.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Francis Bacon wrote the quoted words, pairing hit with miss. en.wiktionary.org
The quotation's work, Sylva Sylvarum, was first published in 1627; the first edition's printed title bears 1626, while its engraved title bears 1627. huntington.org
6
not achieveverbtransitive
To fall short of achieving or attaining something aimed for.
The team missed the playoffs by a single point.
Students who miss the passing grade may retake the exam.
UsageCommon with goals and targets: miss a target, miss the playoffs by a point.
Oppositemake, reach, achieve
7
polite titlenouncountable or uncountable
A title used before the name of an unmarried woman, or alone as a form of address, including by pupils to a female teacher.
Miss Bennet declined the invitation with a polite smile.
Right this way, miss. The doctor will see you now.
UsageGoes before a surname, Miss Carter, or alone: excuse me, miss. Ms suits a woman whose marital status you don't know.
Note
A shortening of mistress that split off to become a title. The same short form underlies the "kept woman" sense, where the meaning stayed closer to its source.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
The title Miss is a shortening of mistress. en.wikipedia.org
The kept-woman sense shares the derivation from mistress and retains its sexual-partner meaning. en.wiktionary.org
8
not graspverbtransitive
To fail to grasp the meaning or significance of something.
She missed the irony in his remark entirely.
Listeners who miss the subtext often misread the whole speech.
UsageCommon in miss the point and miss the joke. The opposite is catch or get.
Similaroverlook, misread
Oppositecatch
Note
The failure here is in the uptake. A joke, an irony or a hint goes past without registering.
9
not thereverbintransitive
To lack something that should be present; to be without (chiefly in progressive forms, as in a book missing two pages).
Note
In Shakespeare the absent thing could be the subject: "What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend," from Romeo and Juliet. Modern English turns this around and puts the lack on the object, as with the "lacking" sense: the play is missing something. Recognize the older pattern when reading, but do not imitate it.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet contains this exact line, spoken by the Chorus in the Prologue. en.wikisource.org
Miss in this line means be absent or lacking, with the absent thing as its subject. en.wikisource.org

Less common meanings

10
a failed shotnouncountable
An attempt that fails to strike its target.
After one wild miss, the batter finally hit the ball hard.
Two early misses cost the archer the championship.
UsageA near miss is one that almost hits, or something that was almost an accident.
Oppositehit
11
failurenouncountable
An instance of failing to obtain or accomplish something; a failure to succeed.
Critics called the album a rare miss for the band.
Her business ventures were a string of hits and misses.
UsageOften paired with hit: hits and misses, hit or miss.
Similarflop, failure, misfire, dud, disappointment
Oppositehit, success, triumph
12
great lossnouncolloquialcountable
A person or thing whose loss or absence is keenly felt.
Our retiring coach will be a real miss next season.
Everyone on our street agrees the little bakery will be a big miss.
UsageUsually a big miss or a real miss: the old coach will be a big miss.
Similarloss
13
dodgeverbtransitive or intransitive
To avoid hitting, meeting, or experiencing something, especially something unpleasant.
The pilot banked hard to miss the mountain ridge.
She swerved just in time to miss a deer standing in the road.
UsageOften with just or barely: the car just missed the wall.
Similaravoid, dodge, escape, evade
Oppositehit, strike
Note
Here the same verb reports a success: the driver who misses the chicken meant to. Only context separates it from the failed-aim meaning. A swerve or a near collision tells you which one is meant, and just often marks the narrow margin, as in just managed to miss.
14
do withoutnouncountable
A deliberate avoidance of something, typically expressed as giving something a miss.
They gave the meeting a miss and went home early.
She gave the crowded sale a miss this year.
UsageUsed in give something a miss: I'll give dessert a miss.
15
young girlnouncountable or uncountable
A young unmarried woman; a girl.
A pert young miss answered the door.
The waiter smiled and asked the young miss what she would like to order.
UsageUsually with young or little: a young miss, the little miss.
Similargirl, lass, maiden, damsel
16
leave me outverbslangtransitive
To spare a person from something unwelcome or annoying.
Miss me with the corporate jargon and just tell me the plan.
You can miss me with those weak excuses.
UsageUsed as a command, miss me with something: miss me with the excuses.
Similarspare
Note
Slang built on a command: Miss me with that nonsense! The speaker asks to be left out of whatever with introduces, such as nonsense, excuses or jargon, and the tone is a brush-off.
17
computer memorynouncountable
An occasion when requested data is not present in the cache and must be loaded from slower memory.
A single cache miss can cost hundreds of processor cycles.
The profiler counts every miss so engineers can tune memory access.
Oppositehit
Note
Engineers count cache misses as a cost to be driven down. The 1999 Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation reports fewer of them after avoiding cache entries for the idle task. It names an ordinary event in running a program, not a bug.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Cache misses are a performance cost that engineers seek to reduce. cs.cornell.edu
The year is correct; the full title is Proceedings of the Third Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation. usenix.org
A paper in those proceedings reports fewer cache misses after avoiding cache entries for the idle task. usenix.org
A cache miss is an ordinary execution event and does not itself indicate a programming bug. cs.cornell.edu
18
not help (cards)verbtransitive or intransitive
In card games, to fail to improve or complete a player's hand.
If you miss the flop with weak cards, it is usually smart to fold.
He chased his straight draw all the way, missed on the river, and lost the pot.
Oppositehit
Note
Poker players say the cards miss, though a player can also miss the flop. The flop missed both players when a rainbow 2-8-3 came against J-7 and Q-6. In this sense the subject is the card or the board, and the object is the player or the hand. A miss gives the holding none of the hoped-for help: no new pair and no completed draw.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
Players can also miss the flop. pokerstars.com
A player can be the subject and the flop the object. pokerstars.com
Missing means failing to make the hoped-for improvement; it does not guarantee unchanged strength or drawing potential. poker.betmgm.com
19
nounobsoletecountable or uncountable
A woman maintained by a man as his mistress.
Similarmistress, paramour, concubine, lover
Note
Here the word keeps mistress in its other meaning: the shortening described under the title of respect turns toward scandal. A later edition of John Evelyn's Sylva (first published in 1664) has "courting a Miss", with a capital letter, just like the polite title. Because the two share a spelling, context has to tell them apart.
20
verbobsoleteintransitive
To go wrong; to make an error.
Emongst the Angels, a whole legione / Of wicked Sprights did fall from happy blis; / What wonder then, if one of women all did mis?
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Note
Spenser could still use it without an object to mean "go wrong". In The Faerie Queene (1590), if a legion of angels fell, "what wonder then, if one of women all did mis?" The failure is moral, a lapse rather than a missed target.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Spenser used miss intransitively to mean go wrong or err. en.wiktionary.org
Edmund Spenser wrote The Faerie Queene, whose first three books were first published in 1590. gla.ac.uk
The quoted words occur in the narrator's commentary in Book III, Canto IX, stanza 2. en.wikisource.org
The failure in this passage is moral wrongdoing. en.wikisource.org
21
nounobsolete
An error, fault, or sin; a wrongdoing.
Note
An obsolete noun for wrongdoing itself, from the same family as the verb that once meant "to go wrong". It covered everything from a simple error to sin, so in older texts its weight depends on context.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The obsolete noun meant wrongdoing and ranged in meaning from an error or fault to sin. en.wiktionary.org
The noun belongs to the same etymological family as the verb miss. en.wiktionary.org
The verb formerly meant to go wrong or err. en.wiktionary.org
22
nounobsolete
Hurt or harm resulting from a mistake or accident.
Note
This old noun named the harm, not the mistake: the hurt that follows from an accident or error. That sets it apart from the noun for wrongdoing, which names the fault itself.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
An obsolete sense of the noun denoted harm resulting from a mistake or accident, distinguishing the resulting harm from the fault denoted by s22. en.wiktionary.org
23
nounobsolete
Loss, lack, or want of something; hence, the felt experience of its absence.
Note
An obsolete noun that held both the absence and the ache of it. That double meaning survives in the "longing" verb, which still covers noticing a loss and feeling it. Today the noun for something whose absence hurts is the informal "big miss". That noun is used of people and things, not of the feeling.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
The obsolete noun meant both absence or lack and the feeling of loss. en.wiktionary.org
24
noun
In snooker, a foul where the referee judges that the player failed to hit the target ball without making every effort to play legally; points are conceded and the shot may be replayed.
25
noun
In three-card loo, an extra hand dealt onto the table which a player may take in place of the hand originally dealt to them.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of miss apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–6, 8–14, 16–18, 20–23

The verb comes from Middle English "missen" and Old English "missan" ("to miss, escape someone's notice"), from Proto-Germanic *missijaną ("to miss, go wrong, fail") and ultimately a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to change, exchange." It is related to Dutch "missen," German "missen," and Swedish "missa." The noun comes from Old English "miss" ("loss, absence"), from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "loss."

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

The verb descends from Middle English missen and Old English missan. en.wiktionary.org
Old English missan meant to miss or escape someone's notice. en.wiktionary.org
The verb derives from Proto-Germanic *missijaną, meaning to miss, go wrong or fail. en.wiktionary.org
Its ultimate Proto-Indo-European root meant to change or exchange. en.wiktionary.org
Dutch missen, German missen and Swedish missa are related to English miss. en.wiktionary.org
The noun descends from Old English miss, meaning loss or absence, and ultimately from a Proto-Germanic root meaning loss. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 7, 15, 19

This sense comes from the word "mistress."

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

Miss as a title or form of address derives from mistress. en.wiktionary.org