error

American  

[er-er] / ˈɛr ər /

noun

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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Related Words

See mistake.

Other Word Forms

• error-free adjective
• errorless adjective
• errorlessly adverb

Etymology

Origin of error

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

Example Sentences

If the information isn’t on the taxpayer’s return, that could produce a “matching error” and a computer-generated query demanding tax.

From The Wall Street Journal

As more flights return, “the potential for airliners being targeted either willfully or by error will increase dramatically,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal

Once again on Saturday, Chelsea were outrun, error‑prone and tactically open, as Everton played through them for a comfortable win at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

From BBC

I tell the AI that it’s the chair of a university ethics board, or a professor of journalism who’s charged with finding every error in a piece of AI-generated research.

From The Wall Street Journal

However, it’s important to remember how the regime came to be, lest we repeat the same errors.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

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