Meaning & use
misreporting
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“misreporting” is a form of “misreport”. See that entry for the full set of meanings.
Meanings
noununcountable
The act of giving a false or inaccurate account of facts, figures or events.
Grammar: No plural and no article: misreporting is a problem, not a misreporting.
Patterns
- misreporting of something
- accused of misreporting
The newspaper apologised for the misreporting of the court case.
The audit found misreporting in the company's sales figures.
Misreporting of symptoms can lead to the wrong treatment.
verbtransitive
The -ing form of misreport: giving a wrong or misleading account of something.
Grammar: Takes an object: they are misreporting the numbers.
Patterns
- misreporting something
- misreporting that something happened
The station was fined for misreporting election results.
He was accused of misreporting his income to the tax office.
Word forms
| base form | misreport |
|---|---|
| third person singular | misreports |
| past tense | misreported |
| past participle | misreported |
Common combinations
- deliberate misreporting
- Deliberate misreporting of profits is a form of fraud.
- misreporting of results
- The misreporting of results undermined the study.
- accused of misreporting
- The bank was accused of misreporting its losses.
- media misreporting
- Media misreporting caused panic in the town.
- accidental misreporting
- The error appears to be accidental misreporting.
Synonyms and how they differ
- misrepresentation
- Misrepresentation is broader and can involve actions or images, while misreporting is about giving inaccurate information.
- falsification
- Falsification always involves deliberate changes to records, whereas misreporting may be an honest mistake.
- distortion
- Distortion suggests twisting facts so they look different, while misreporting just means getting the report wrong.
- inaccuracy
- Inaccuracy is a plain mistake in detail, not necessarily in a report.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: misreporting or underreporting?
misreporting vs underreporting
Underreporting means reporting too little, such as fewer cases than occurred. Misreporting means reporting wrongly in any way.
Practice
The company faced fines for ___ its earnings in the annual report.
Choose one answer.
After a preposition, the -ing form misreporting is needed. Misreports and misreport are the wrong form here, and misreading means reading wrongly, not reporting.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “misreporting”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.