Go missing means to disappear, with nobody knowing where. It's used about people and animals, as in a missing person, and about things you can't find: The keys have gone missing. It sounds especially natural in British English.
Want to remember go missing?
Write a sentence — we'll show the mistakes right away and suggest how to say it more naturally.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
go missing (from + place); have gone missing; a missing person/item
- Our cat went missing for three days and then came home hungry.
- Half the teaspoons have gone missing since we moved into this flat.
- A hiker went missing in the mountains, and rescuers found him the next morning.
What changed
First versionMy passport missed somewhere at the airport.
RevisionMy passport went missing somewhere at the airport.
Missed can seem right, since missing is connected with loss. But miss means to feel sad that someone isn't there, to fail to catch or attend something, or to fail to hit, not to disappear. Disappearing is expressed by go missing: go here means become, as in go bad.
Without go, missing describes a state: My passport is missing, meaning it isn't where it should be. Go missing is the moment it disappears: It went missing at the airport. And a missing person is someone who has disappeared and can't be found.
Your turn
Two of my socks always ___ in the washing machine, and I never find them again.
Show the answer
go missing — The socks disappear, so go missing. Miss means to long for or to fail to catch, and with it the socks wouldn't vanish at all.
Describe a time something of yours went missing. Name the thing and where you finally found it.
My headphones went missing last winter, and I found them in my ski jacket in March.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.