How to spell misbehave

hear itmis·be·have/,mɪsbɪ'heɪv/verbPrefixes and work

What it means: To act badly or disobey rules.

In a sentence: The teacher reminded us not to misbehave during the field trip.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as missbehave or misbehavee.

Same family: behavior, misbehavior, well-behaved, badly-behaved, behaving. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Misbehave” comes from the prefix “mis-,” meaning “wrongly,” plus “behave,” which goes back to Old French and Latin roots about having or holding oneself. The word has been used in English since the 1500s to describe acting in the wrong way.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa) · Prefixes keep every letter

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

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