misapprehension.

A mistaken understanding or belief about what something means or how a situation stands.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• under a misapprehension
• labor under a misapprehension
• correct a misapprehension

On the page

I was under the misapprehension that the invitation included a guest.

The opening paragraph corrects a common misapprehension about the study.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated prose. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Countable or uncountable by context; countable singular misapprehension; plural misapprehensions. Commonness: moderately common (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: MW noun action/state cross-reference directly read; Cambridge directly read countable/uncountable failure to understand or an incorrect understanding/belief. One useful umbrella sense; no artificial acting/being split. Individual usefulness checked for a precise literary, narrative, dialogue or critical function. Definitions and examples are original; commonness is an editorial estimate. Mood and intensity apply only to inherent qualities of the specific sense. Writing functions: a mistaken belief driving a scene, correcting an incorrect assumption.