Misinformation is wrong information spread by people who believe it. Spread misinformation, tackle misinformation, health misinformation.
The distinction from disinformation is intent: disinformation is spread deliberately, misinformation by people who think it is true, and most of what circulates is the second. Correcting it works better when the true version is repeated than when the false one is.
1nounmisinformationWrong information spread by people who believe it.
“My uncle keeps sharing misinformation about vaccines, thinking he's helping.”
misinformation is false information.
Middle English
enformacioun
English
information
English, today
misinformation
Built from
From mis- + information. information comes from Middle English enformacioun. From Middle English enformacioun, informacioun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman informacioun, enformation, Old French information, from Latin īnfōrmātiō (“formation, conception; education”), from the participle stem of īnformāre (“to inform”). Equivalent to inform + ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA