off the mark
Wide of truth
Off the mark means inaccurate or missing the point—like an arrow that fails to hit its target.
His estimate was way off the mark.
The phrase often appears in assessments of predictions, guesses, or judgments: Critics who dismissed the film were completely off the mark.
The opposite, on the mark, means accurate or correct.
Contrary to fact
- incorrectNot accurate or true
- erroneousContaining factual mistakes
- mistakenIncorrectly understood or believed
- falseNot matching reality
untrue · faulty · flawed · misguided · awry · astray · wide · amiss
Poorly thought through
- misinterpretedUnderstood incorrectly
- misreadInterpret text incorrectly
- misconstruedIncorrectly understood another's meaning
- misunderstoodIncorrectly comprehended
unfounded · invalid · deceived · deluded · misled · blunder · fallacy · error
wrong
Contrary to fact
- incorrectNot accurate or true
- erroneousContaining factual mistakes
- mistakenIncorrectly understood or believed
false · untrue · faulty · flawed · misguided · awry · astray · wide · amiss · wayward
misconceived
Poorly thought through
- misinterpretedUnderstood incorrectly
- misreadInterpret text incorrectly
- misconstruedIncorrectly understood another's meaning
misunderstood · unfounded · invalid · deceived · deluded · misled · blunder · fallacy · error · oversight
- off targetwide, miss, misfire, astray, misdirected
- Cricket Idiomssticky wicket, not cricket, bowled over, stumped, on the back foot
- oopsoops, whoops, whoopsie, oopsie, woopsie
off the markon target
Accurately directed or predicted
hitting the mark · on the mark · bullseye · dead center · direct hit
mark, off, marker, marked, marks, remark, remarkable, trademark, benchmark