near miss

1. 1.

   an accidental collision that is narrowly avoided

   Broadermishap

Questions about near miss

What does near miss mean?

near miss means "an accidental collision that is narrowly avoided".

Is near miss a common word?

near miss 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.