Misquotation
Reproducing a quote with the wording changed — even if the source is correct.
A misquotation reproduces a quote with the wording altered from the original. The author may be named correctly, but the words attributed to them are not the words they said or wrote. Misquotation is distinct from misattribution: one wrong-words, one wrong-mouth.
Most misquotations are honest. People remember the gist of a famous line and reconstruct the rest. Over time, the smoother, punchier reconstruction usually replaces the original in popular memory.
Some of the most familiar 'quotes' in English are actually misquotations: 'Play it again, Sam', 'Beam me up, Scotty', and 'Elementary, my dear Watson' are all reconstructed lines that the cited sources never used in those words.
“Play it again, Sam.”
Keep reading the glossary
Assigning a quote to the wrong person — the most common error in quotation.
Restating someone's words in your own — credit still required, quotation marks not.
A quote attributed to a famous person that they almost certainly never said.
The act of naming the original speaker or writer of a quote.