Missed and mist are two words that are pronounced in the same way but are spelled differently and have different meanings, which makes them homophones. We will examine the definitions of missed and mist, where these two words came from and some examples of their use in sentences.
Missed is the past tense of miss, which means to fail to make contact with something, to fail to catch a thrown object, to fail to understand or hear something. Miss may also mean to fail to keep an appointment. The word miss is sometimes used to mean to mourn the absence of something or someone, to regret the absence of something or someone. Related words are misses and missing. The word miss is derived from the Old English word missan which means to fail to hit.
Mist is a vapor cloud made up of tiny water droplets. Mist may be natural or generated by a machine known as a vaporizer or humidifier. The word mist is also used figuratively to mean something that clouds one’s vision, perception or memory. Mist may be used as a noun or a verb, related words are mists, misted, misting, mister, misty. The word mist is derived from the Old English word mistian which means to become misty.
Examples
The votes Black missed this year include several perfunctory measures, including on legislative motions . (The Tennessean)
“We really missed him, and so did our visitors.” (The Sunday Herald)
“Specialized mist and fog jets will create an ephemeral, cooling cloud that will generally rise between 3 and 5 feet above the surface, providing relief for visitors on hot days,” Parks Department spokeswoman Meghan Lalor emailed the Chronicle. (The Queens Chronicle)
Fog and mist caused poor visibility in some parts of the country in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to the National Centre for Meteorology. (The National)
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