Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.
Class IV. Words Relating to the Intellectual FacultiesDivision (II) Communication of Ideas
Section I. Nature of Ideas Communicated
523. Misinterpretation.
NOUN:MISINTERPRETATION, misapprehension, misdoubt, misconception, misunderstanding, misacceptation [obs.], misconstruction, misapplication; catachresis; eisegesis; cross-reading, cross-purposes; mistake [See Error].MISREPRESENTATION, perversion, misstatement, exaggeration [See Exaggeration]; false -coloring, – construction; abuse of terms; play upon words, jeu de mots [F.], pun, parody, travesty; falsification (lying) [See Falsehood].
VERB:MISINTERPRET, misapprehend, misunderstand, misconceive, misjudge, misdeem, misdoubt, misspell, mistranslate, misconstrue, misapply; mistake [See Error].
MISREPRESENT, pervert; explain wrongly, misstate; garble (falsify) [See Falsehood]; distort, detort [obs.]; travesty, play upon words; stretch -, strain -, twist -, wrench -, wring -, wrest- the -sense, – meaning; explain away; put a -bad, – wrong, – erroneous, – false- construction on; give a false coloring; look through dark -, rose-colored- spectacles.
BE OUT; be -, play- at cross-purposes; be off [slang], be ’way off [slang].
ADJECTIVE:MISINTERPRETED &c. v.; eisegetical, catachrestic or catachrestical; untranslated, untranslatable.
CONFUSED, tangled, snarled, mixed, dazed, perplexed, bewildered, rattled [slang], benighted.
ADVERB:AT CROSS-PURPOSES, at sixes and sevens [colloq.]; à tort et à travers [F.]; all balled up [colloq.], in a maze.
QUOTATION:There are no secrets better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses.—Shaw