MEANING
A poor fit between things expected to correspond, or the act of pairing them unsuitably.
Use it for
identifying a gap between skills and job requirements; describing a method that does not fit a research question; distinguishing incompatibility from a harmless differenceIdentifies a specific failure of fit between things that are paired or expected to correspond, rather than mere difference. Writing functions: Comparison / Contrast, Research / Methodology.
Words that belong together
- a mismatch between skills and jobs
- a mismatch of expectations
- mismatch resources and needs
On the page
The report identifies a mismatch between the questionnaire’s categories and participants’ descriptions of their work.
The design risks mismatching the unit of measurement with the level of the claim.
Word forms
- Base
- mismatch
- Past tense
- mismatched
- Past participle
- mismatched
- Present participle
- mismatching
Usage notes
Count noun and transitive verb: mismatch; mismatches; mismatched; mismatched; mismatching. Noun plural mismatches. Future: will mismatch. Common noun pattern mismatch between A and B. Register: neutral. Commonness: common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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