Missers

Missers is a general term used to describe individuals or things that fail to reach a target, goal, or expected outcome. The word is formed from the verb miss and the agent noun suffix -er; it is informal and not a technical designation. The concept covers both concrete targets and more abstract aims, such as opportunities or deadlines.

In sports, a miss is an unsuccessful attempt to score or hit a target. Athletes who miss frequently may be described colloquially as missers, though the term is not used in official statistics. Ratings of accuracy in sports are usually expressed as shooting percentage, field-goal percentage, or miss rate, which quantify misses relative to attempts.

Beyond athletics, missers may refer to people who fail to seize opportunities, miss deadlines, or overlook important information. Causes of misses include cognitive load, attention lapses, risk aversion, environmental constraints, or deliberate strategy. In fields such as information retrieval or manufacturing, miss rates describe the portion of attempts that fail to achieve the desired result, informing quality control or optimization.

Etymology: The term derives from the verb miss; the agent noun suffix -er conveys a person associated with the action, though missers remain largely informal. Related terms include miss, miss rate, error, and failure.