erroneously
Americanadverb
-
incorrectly; wrongly.
For years I recorded my birth date erroneously as July 1, until I discovered from my father’s diary that it was actually July 30.
-
by mistake; unintentionally.
I just posted these comments again because they were erroneously wiped out the first time due to a technical issue.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of erroneously
Explanation
If you’ve done something erroneously, you’ve made a mistake or accidentally given out wrong information. If you erroneously accuse your brother of eating the last slice of your pecan pie, then you’re wrong: he didn’t do it. Erroneously traces back to the Latin word errare, meaning “to stray, err.” If something’s done erroneously, you can think of it as straying from the right path and ending up going in the wrong direction. If you erroneously report to the IRS that you only made $500 last year and you really made $10,000, well, that’s a big mistake. If you do something erroneously, it’s typically by accident — you think it’s right but it isn’t.
Vocabulary lists containing erroneously
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err (stray; go wrong)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Many other longtime residents have reported erroneously receiving letters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
That meant the system erroneously believed some cars had been lapped because they were not showing up on the correct timing loops, so it started showing blue flags when no-one had been lapped.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Johnson, he added, gets blamed for tampering with Social Security, with many people erroneously believing the president dipped into the program’s coffers.
From MarketWatch ● May 2, 2026
CNN on Wednesday stirred concerns about the 64-year-old Emmy winner’s health after it erroneously published an article a video titled “Remembering the life of actor Michael J. Fox,” according a screenshot published by TMZ.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
Every now and then at flea markets, or in the occasional photography book, I come across one of Plantagenet’s old pictures, usually erroneously ascribed to the twenties because of the Daimler.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
