misguided

1 of 2

adjective

mis·​guid·​ed (ˌ)mis-ˈgī-dəd 

: led or prompted by wrong or inappropriate motives or ideals

well-meaning but misguided do-gooders

misguidedly

(ˌ)mis-ˈgī-dəd-lē 

adverb

misguidedness

(ˌ)mis-ˈgī-dəd-nəs 

noun

misguided

2 of 2

past tense and past participle of misguide

Examples of misguided in a Sentence

Adjective

She's been getting a lot of bad advice from misguided friends.

He blames the crisis on the government's misguided economic policies.

a misguided attempt to help

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Thus, treating the first movie’s haul as the new standard for future chapters was misguided, particularly when sequels have historically earned less than their predecessors. — Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 7 Oct. 2026

Amendment 84 is a misguided attempt to prevent a rare form of voter fraud by requiring voters to either write the last four digits of their Social Security number or the last four digits of their driver’s license number on their ballot. — The Denver Post Editorial Board, Denver Post, 7 Oct. 2026

The backlash is an understandable, if misguided, response to a number of concerning cases of police abuse. — Rafael A. Mangual, Washington Post, 2 Oct. 2026

Within this literature, no decade is more doom-laden than the nineteen-thirties, when misguided hope and willful blindness led the world’s democracies to grossly underestimate the threat of Fascism. — Beverly Gage, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

1500, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for misguided

• abided
• collided
• confided
• decided
• derided
• divided
• elided
• lopsided
• nitrided
• presided
• provided
• resided