misbegotten

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
16
Words With Friends
20
Letters
11
Pronunciation
/ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɒtn̩/
See all 2 pronunciations
/ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɒtn̩/ · /ˌmɪsbɪˈɡɑtn̩/

Definition of misbegotten

6 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

adj

  1. Born out of wedlock; illegitimate.
    “But as the Deuill would haue it, three miſ-be-gotten Knaues, in Kendall Greene, came at my Back, […]”
    ““Foolish woman!” responded the physician, half coldly, half soothingly. “What should ail me to harm this misbegotten and miserable babe? The medicine is potent for good, and were it my child—yea, mine own, as well as thine! I could do no better for it.””
See all 6 definitions

adj

  1. Born out of wedlock; illegitimate.
    “But as the Deuill would haue it, three miſ-be-gotten Knaues, in Kendall Greene, came at my Back, […]”
    ““Foolish woman!” responded the physician, half coldly, half soothingly. “What should ail me to harm this misbegotten and miserable babe? The medicine is potent for good, and were it my child—yea, mine own, as well as thine! I could do no better for it.””
  2. (broadly, figuratively)Ill-conceived.
    “Many of the strangest, most misbegotten studio films of the last 20 years have been comedies, perhaps because middle-aged executives have no comprehension of what the younger generation finds funny.”
  3. (broadly)Bad; worthless.
    “Rather, as there was something abnormal and misbegotten in the very essence of the creature that now faced me—something seizing, surprising and revolting—this fresh disparity seemed but to fit in with and to rëinforce it;[…]”
    “"Do they not sneakingly bestow on me their crass inability to do anything with their own misbegotten progeny, a subterfuge which I scornfully fub off on text-books?"”
    “There was the guy I spent a misbegotten night with who said he'd call me and never did but came to the party anyway, and I felt primed for a confrontation.”
    “He chose then to push away his misbegotten regret and to concentrate instead on his relief: relief that he was free of the grim demands of his self-imposed quest and that his only remaining obligations were those born of his current position.”

verb

  1. (form-of, participle, past)past participle of misbeget

noun

  1. (derogatory, obsolete, sometimes)One born illegitimately (i.e., out of wedlock); a bastard.
  2. (broadly, in-plural)A person born into infelicitous circumstances.
    “By preserving the incapable and “misbegotten”, and by insisting that they be the object of compassionate attention, it would cause even the strong to be infected with gloom and nihilism.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From mis- + begotten.

Words you can make from misbegotten

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9-letter words

3 words

8-letter words

14 words

7-letter words

44 words

6-letter words

83 words

5-letter words

55 words

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