as in narrow escapes
a barely successful escape from something undesirable
a near miss with death prompted him to give up skydiving
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Recent Examples of near misses
How Mondo Duplantis Set Up His World Title After two near misses on his final attempt, Duplantis wowed the crowd on his final one.
—
Cory Mull, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
After years of near misses and heartbreak, the Englishman finally broke through with a dramatic win at the Tour Championship, pocketing a $10 million prize.
—Devlina Sarkar, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Sep. 2025
In the decade that followed, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and near misses continued.
—Guy Fedorkow, IEEE Spectrum, 2 June 2025
Cory Mull, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
After years of near misses and heartbreak, the Englishman finally broke through with a dramatic win at the Tour Championship, pocketing a $10 million prize.
—Devlina Sarkar, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Sep. 2025
In the decade that followed, cyberattacks on critical infrastructure and near misses continued.
—Guy Fedorkow, IEEE Spectrum, 2 June 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for near misses
close calls
Noun
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But when a beloved bookstore — especially one that’s had some close calls over the years — turns 70, nothing short of a block party will do.—
Kate Bradshaw,
Mercury News,
19 Sep. 2025
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With multiple overtime games, upsets and close calls, Week 2 provided a lot of reasons to shake up this week’s edition of The Athletic 136, just not at the top.—
Chris Vannini,
New York Times,
8 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Near misses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/near%20misses. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
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