Other forms: misunderstandings
A misunderstanding is a failure to grasp what somebody meant. A simple misunderstanding, clear up the misunderstanding, there has been a misunderstanding.
It is the polite word for a disagreement whose cause is being generously described: calling something a misunderstanding says nobody was at fault. It also means a mistaken idea generally: a widespread misunderstanding about how it works. The verb is misunderstand, past tense misunderstood. Note the mis- prefix, which is one of English's most productive: misread, mishear, misjudge, mislead, and about two hundred more.
1nounmisunderstandingA failure to grasp what was meant.
“The whole thing was a misunderstanding about a single word.”
2noundisagreementA disagreement described politely.
“There was a misunderstanding and neither of them spoke for a year.”
misunderstanding is a failure of understanding.
The mis- prefix comes from Old English and means wrongly or badly. It is native rather than borrowed, which is why it attaches so easily to ordinary English verbs and so awkwardly to Latin ones.
Middle English
mys undirstonding
English, today
misunderstanding
From Middle English mys undirstonding, equivalent to misunderstand + ing. Compare Dutch misverstand (“misunderstanding”), German Missverständnis (“misunderstanding”), Swedish missförstånd (“misunderstanding”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA