A misprint is a mistake in something that has been printed, like a book, newspaper, or poster. When a misprint happens, the wrong letters, words, or numbers appear on the page, even though someone tried to get everything right.

You might find a misprint in a textbook where “the” accidentally appears as “teh,” or a newspaper might list a concert starting at 8:00 PM when it actually starts at 7:00 PM. Sometimes misprints are funny, like when a menu advertises “chicken soap” instead of “chicken soup.” Other times they cause real confusion, like when a price tag shows the wrong amount.

Misprints happen for different reasons. Sometimes a typesetter (a person preparing text for printing) hits the wrong key. Other times the printing machine malfunctions. Before computers, misprints were much more common because publishers had to arrange individual metal letters by hand to create each page.

The word misprint can also work as a verb: a publisher might accidentally misprint the date on thousands of calendars. While spell-checkers catch many errors before printing, misprints still slip through, which is why publishers employ proofreaders to catch these mistakes before books reach readers.