blooper
Americannoun
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Informal. an embarrassing or humorous mistake, as one spoken live over a radio or television broadcast or one recorded during the filming of a movie, television show, etc..
At the end of each season, the cast gathers to watch all the hilarious bloopers that were edited out along the way.
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Radio. a receiving set that generates from its antenna radio-frequency signals that interfere with other nearby receivers.
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Baseball.
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Also called bloop, looper, Texas leaguer. a fly ball that carries just beyond the infield, where it is out of catching range for both the infielders and the outfielders, resulting in a hit for the batter.
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Also blooper ball a pitched ball that travels in a high arc before deceptively dropping into the strike zone.
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noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of blooper
First recorded in 1925–30; bloop + -er 1, originally in reference to a radio receiver that emits bloops
Explanation
A blooper is a mistake, especially an embarrassing one that's witnessed by other people. Your professor may be famous for his colorful bow ties and his frequent bloopers. You can use the word blooper to describe any gaffe or faux pas that makes you blush. Often films and TV shows will keep a reel of bloopers that were caught on camera — generally mistakes or flubbed lines by actors. The word was first used in the 1940s in the theater world, from US baseball slang, meaning "a high fly ball that an outfielder doesn't catch."
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.
See Examples For:
Battered, bruised and well beaten, Smith had coughed up a horrendous blooper for Sale's sixth try, failing to gather a routine backfield ball to allow a chasing Raffi Quirke to dot down.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2025
Will we ever see a “Shadows” blooper reel?
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2025
When we were out last time, I made a great big blooper on the guitar while I was doing my famous intro to “Crazy on You” — totally train-wrecked it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2025
Jackson and his classmates had just played their year-end video for Maclean, and they had included a blooper section toward the end of the video.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
In the second blooper, the problem does not lie in the relationship between clauses— it’s cause-and-effect in both interpretations—but in exactly what causes what.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Willman spoke to The Times about what inspired this new special, his most transcendent moments on stage, past performances bloopers and his secret to keeping his illusions weighted in reality.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2025
For MIT engineers, the lunar bloopers also highlight an opportunity to innovate.
From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024
In the bloopers, he clanks about 20 beforehand.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
I'm on the comedy committee and we decided to put together a bloopers reel of the first week.
From BBC ● Mar. 29, 2023
At night, Fred, Nala, and Scruffy feasted on Salisbury steak, laughed about the day’s bloopers, and swapped stories.
From "Dog Squad" by Chris Grabenstein
Definitions 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.
