mondegreen means A form of (possibly intentional) error arising from mishearing a spoken or sung phrase, possibly in a different language.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mondegreen ranks #2,319 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words.
mondegreen is pronounced /ˈmɒndəɡɹiːn/.
Why “mondegreen” is a great word
A mondegreen is a mishearing or misinterpretation of a spoken or sung phrase, especially a lyric or line of poetry, that results in an often plausible but incorrect understanding. Coined in 1954 by American writer Sylvia Wright from her mishearing of the line 'and laid him on the green' in the Scottish ballad 'The Bonnie Earl o' Moray' as 'and Lady Mondegreen.' Unlike a malapropism, which is a speaker's verbal blunder, or an eggcorn, a listener's plausible reseeding of an established term, a mondegreen is a phantom phrase forged in the attentive ear. It is the secret conviction that '’Scuse me while I kiss this guy' is the true lyric, the child singing 'Round John Virgin' at a Christmas pageant, or the solemn, misheard prayer for 'Harold be thy name'—each a minor, private creation where the mind's desperate need for meaning overrides the evidence of the air, a testament to the stories we hear in the static.
Etymology
Coined by American journalist and editor Sylvia Wright in 1954 in Harper's Magazine from mishearing a line in the Scottish ballad The Bonnie Earl o' Moray: “They have slain the Earl o' Moray, / And laid him on the green”, the second line being misheard as, “And Lady Mondegreen”.
noun
- A form of (possibly intentional) error arising from mishearing a spoken or sung phrase, possibly in a different language.“Our report of a relative who, as a child, thought the classic version of the Lord's Prayer began "Our father, a chart in heaven, Harold be thy name" stated that this type of mistake is known as an eggcorn. A number of readers have suggested that instances like this in which a whole phrase rather than just a word is misheard, should be called mondegreens rather than eggcorns.”
- A misunderstanding of a written or spoken phrase as a result of multiple definitions.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- eggcorn 83% match — A word or phrase that sounds like and is mistakenly used in a seemingly logical or plausible way for another word or phrase either on its own or as part of a set expression vs mondegreen →
- malapropism 82% match — The blundering use of an absurdly inappropriate word or expression in place of a similar-sounding one. vs mondegreen →
- malaphor 82% match — An idiom blend: an error in which two similar figures of speech are merged, producing an often nonsensical result. vs mondegreen →
- misattribution 81% match — The act or process of misattributing. vs mondegreen →
- spoonerism 81% match — A play on words on a phrase in which the initial (usually consonantal) sounds of two or more of the main words are transposed. vs mondegreen →
- misnomer 81% match — A mistake in the naming of a person or place; a misidentification. vs mondegreen →
- misreference 80% match — An incorrect reference. vs mondegreen →
- contrafactum 80% match — The substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music. vs mondegreen →