misuse

1. 1.

   improper or excessive use

   “alcohol abuse”

   “the abuse of public funds”

   Synonymsabuse

   Broaderuse

   Narrowersubstance abuse

Other forms of misuse

plural

misuses·

past tense

misused·

present participle

misusing·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about misuse

What does misuse mean?

misuse means "apply to a wrong thing or person; apply badly or incorrectly". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in misuse?

misuse has 2 syllables: mi-suse. The stress falls on "suse". In IPA it is /mɪsˈjuz/.

What is another word for misuse?

Close synonyms include misapply, pervert, abuse, abuse. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is misuse a common word?

misuse is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with misuse?

1 word rhymes with misuse. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.