misquotation.

An inaccurate reproduction of someone's spoken or written words.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• common misquotation
• deliberate misquotation

On the page

The misquotation made the speaker sound more certain than she was.

Usage notes

Primary category: analysis / argumentation / evidence. Forms: Countable or uncountable by context; countable singular misquotation; plural misquotations. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.