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error

American  

[er-er] / ˈɛr ər /

noun

• errors
  plural

1. a deviation from accuracy or correctness; a mistake, as in action or speech.

   His speech contained several factual errors.

   Synonyms:

   oversight, slip, blunder

2. belief in something untrue; the holding of mistaken opinions.

3. the condition of believing what is not true.

   in error about the date.

4. a moral offense; wrongdoing; sin.

   Synonyms:

   misdeed, trespass, transgression, fault

5. Baseball. a misplay that enables a base runner to reach base safely or advance a base, or a batter to have a turn at bat prolonged, as the dropping of a ball batted in the air, the fumbling of a batted or thrown ball, or the throwing of a wild ball, but not including a passed ball or wild pitch.

6. Mathematics. the difference between the observed or approximately determined value and the true value of a quantity.

7. Law.

   1. a mistake in a matter of fact or law in a case tried in a court of record.

   2. writ of error.

8. Philately. a stamp distinguished by an error or errors in design, engraving, selection of inks, or setting up of the printing apparatus.

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error British  

/ ˈɛrə /

noun

1. a mistake or inaccuracy, as in action or speech

   a typing error

2. an incorrect belief or wrong judgment

3. the condition of deviating from accuracy or correctness, as in belief, action, or speech

   he was in error about the train times

4. deviation from a moral standard; wrongdoing

   he saw the error of his ways

5. maths statistics a measure of the difference between some quantity and an approximation to or estimate of it, often expressed as a percentage

   an error of 5%

6. statistics See type I error type II error

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error Idioms  

1. see comedy of errors; trial and error.

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Synonym Usage

See mistake.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• error-free
  adjective
• errorless
  adjective
• errorlessly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• errors
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of error

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English errour, from Latin errōr-, stem of error, equivalent to err + -or ¹

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Explanation

"I'm sorry, sir, there's been some sort of error in the kitchen," is what a restaurant waiter might say to a patron who ordered the fish but was mistakenly served a plateful of worms instead. Simply put, an error is a mistake. However, that mistake is more likely due to a lapse in judgment or skill than to an accident. A plane crash that occurs after the pilot mistakenly presses the "pilot eject" button is said to be caused by "human error." A baseball play in which the pitcher throws the ball to second base instead of first because he was distracted by a pretty girl in the stands is an error — one that might cost his team the game.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

error errors

Corporate America has a major error in its math when it comes to aging.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 10, 2026

The Gallup poll of 1,200 adults was conducted between October 1-19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

From Barron's ● Nov. 10, 2026

“It is still early days in the reset Convenience Retail strategy and given the historical challenges, we are inclined to factor in some room for error for now,” says analyst Michael Simotas.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 10, 2026

It may be voted as an on-field error, but not to the threshold for VAR.

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026

Then the Knights scored four more in the next inning, three on a bases-loaded single and two-base throwing error.

From "A High Five for Glenn Burke" by Phil Bildner

Muchova served for the first set but a string of errors forced her into a tie-break, and more mistakes gifted Sabalenka the opener.

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2026

Differences in these systems may help explain why people with sleep disorders often experience slower reaction times, difficulty making decisions, and a greater likelihood of errors or accidents.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 8, 2026

After threatening to take control, Wales continually let Japan back into the game as they were guilty of poor handling errors, bouts of indiscipline and lapses in concentration.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2026

Since these readings determine royalty and tax payments, the lab estimated that the errors could lead to an overstatement or understatement of a single well’s production value by as much as $36 million a year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

I’d essentially be proofreading—checking for errors and making suggestions about work that had already been done on behalf of “our team.”

From "Liar, Liar" by Gary Paulsen

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Related Words

• blunder
• failure
• fault
• flaw
• glitch
• inaccuracy
• lapse
• miscalculation
• miscue
• misdeed
• mismanagement
• misstep
• misunderstanding
• offense
• omission
• sin
• transgression
• wrongdoing

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