Idioms that describe ‘misunderstanding’

Have you found yourself confused in the middle of a conversation? Here are some interesting ways to express your misunderstanding.

Remya Prakash
Knudge.me
Published in
3 min readJun 22, 2018

The next time you are confused about a situation or something that someone just said, try using one of these idioms:

  • ‘Not on the same page’

Imagine a classroom situation where the teacher asks the learners to turn to a particular page. If you don’t take that page, you wouldn’t understand what was being discussed. This idiom is believed to have originated from this situation. So, when you say that you are not on the same page, you mean that you do not share the same understanding with someone else.

The interior designer and I are not on the same page — that’s why our house is still incomplete!

  • Get hold of the wrong end of the stick’/ ‘Get the wrong end of the stick’

If a walking stick is held upside down, it doesn’t benefit the person who uses it. Similarly, this idiom is used to imply that someone has misunderstood a situation.

The police got the wrong end of the stick when they saw me break open the window of my locked house. I locked myself outside and was nearly arrested!

  • Get one’s wires crossed

When we say that people have got their wires crossed it means that they understand the same situation differently. This idiom originates from a telephone analogy where crossed wires meant calls getting mixed up, creating a lot of confusion.

I didn’t know the party was today — we must have got our wires crossed!

  • Can’t make heads or tails of’/ ‘Can’t make head or tail of

This idiom is used to refer to something or someone that is confusing. ‘Heads or tails’ refers to the two sides of a coin, and could also imply the beginning or end of a situation.

I can’t make heads or tails of this user’s manual, please help!

  • At cross-purposes’/ ‘At cross purposes

To talk at cross purposes implies that two people think they are talking about the same topic while they are actually talking about completely different topics.

It took us half an hour to realize that we were talking at cross purposes! I meant Memphis in Egypt while he was talking about Memphis in USA.

  • Lost the thread

Imagine you are attending a long lecture when you get distracted. You suddenly don’t know what the speaker is currently explaining. You have lost the thread of the lecture because you cannot follow the meaning of what is being said.

Could you explain the diagram again? I seem to have lost the thread of what you were saying.

  • It’s beyond someone

This idiom is used to describe something that is too difficult for someone to understand.

It’s beyond me why anyone would want to swim in the freezing ocean.

  • It beats me!’

This idiom is similar to the previous idiom, but it shows more surprise about your lack of understanding.

It beats me why anyone would willingly learn Mathematics!

  • To muddy the waters

When mud from the bottom of a lake is stirred up, the water becomes opaque; this makes it difficult to see what is in the water. The above expression refers to doing something to make a situation difficult to understand.

Please don’t muddy the waters by telling me about alternate pronunciations! I can barely remember the word as it is!

  • A lost ball in the high weeds

This self-explanatory idiom is used when referring to someone who is very confused. He/she probably doesn’t know where to go or what to do next.

Even though I spent hours going over the campus map, on the first day of college I felt like a lost ball in the high weeds.

  • To have no clue

This idiom is used when you don’t know anything about a situation.

I have no clue about what to prepare for this exam!

There are countless more idioms that can be used to describe misunderstandings. Try to create your own list, but in the meanwhile watch the video below which covers a few of these idioms.

Idioms to Refer to Misunderstandings

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