blooper

American  

[bloo-per] / ˈblu pər /

noun

1. 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.

   Synonyms:

   goof, gaffe, slip, blunder, error

2. Radio. a receiving set that generates from its antenna radio-frequency signals that interfere with other nearby receivers.

3. Baseball.

   1. 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.

   2. Also blooper ball a pitched ball that travels in a high arc before deceptively dropping into the strike zone.

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blooper British  

/ ˈbluːpə /

noun

1. informal a blunder; bloomer; stupid mistake

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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

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

Its fraternal spirit reminded me of the blooper reels you’d see at the end of the Burt Reynolds movies made by director Hal Needham who, yes, began his career as a stunt double.

From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2024

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 fifth, Stuart Fairchild turned a blooper into a triple and scored on the errant throw home to put the Reds ahead 2-1.

From Washington Times • Aug. 9, 2023

The psychiatrist who wrote the first blooper presumably intended his second clause to convey a temporal sequence between two events: the patient saw the doctor, and since that time she has been depressed.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

Related Words

• gaffe