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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

mischief.

Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈmɪsˌt͡ʃiːf/Received-Pronunciation[ˈmɪsˌt͡ʃʰɪi̯f]Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɪs.t͡ʃɪf/Received-Pronunciation[ˈmɪs.t͡ʃʰɪf]Received-Pronunciation
  1. Conduct that playfully causes petty annoyance.

    uncountable
    Drink led to mischief.
  2. A playfully annoying action.

    countable
    John's mischief, tying his shoelaces together, irked George at first.
  3. A nest or pack of mice or rats.

    collective · countable · uncountable
  4. Harm or injury: Harm or trouble caused by an agent or brought about by a particular cause.

    archaic · uncountable
    She had mischief in her heart.
    Sooner or later he'll succeed in doing some serious mischief.
  5. Harm or injury: An injury or an instance of harm or trouble caused by a person or other agent or cause.

    archaic · countable
    It may end in her doing a great mischief to herself—and perhaps to others too.
  6. A criminal offence defined in various ways in various jurisdictions, sometimes including causing damage to another's property.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A cause or agent of annoyance, harm or injury, especially a person who causes mischief.

    archaic · countable
  8. The Devil; used as an expletive.

    countable · euphemistic · uncountable
  9. Casual and/or flirtatious sexual acts.

    Australia · countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English myschef, meschef, meschief, mischef, from Old French meschief, from meschever (“to bring to grief”), from mes- (“badly”) + chever (“happen; come to a head”), from Vulgar Latin *capare, from Latin caput (“head”).

verb/ˈmɪsˌt͡ʃiːf/Received-Pronunciation[ˈmɪsˌt͡ʃʰɪi̯f]Received-Pronunciation/ˈmɪs.t͡ʃɪf/Received-Pronunciation[ˈmɪs.t͡ʃʰɪf]Received-Pronunciation
  1. To do a mischief to; to harm.

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To slander.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English myschefen, myscheven, from Old French meschever.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.