gaffe
Americannoun
-
gaffes
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of gaffe
1905–10; < French: blunder, probably special use of gaffe gaff 1
Explanation
A gaffe is a mistake that embarrasses you in front of others. If you run into a friend out with her grey-haired father, and you blurt out, "Oh, hi, you must be Tara's grandfather!" then you've made a gaffe. Gaffe rhymes with laugh, and you'll be lucky if that's how people respond to your social blunder. A gaffe seems to occur most often when you literally don't know your audience — you make a joke about the mayor; you didn't know you were talking to his sister. That's definitely a gaffe. And who knew your hosts come from a culture that takes offense if you refuse to try every dish?
Vocabulary lists containing gaffe
100 SAT Words Beginning with "G"
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Awkward Moments
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
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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.
See Examples For:
Those words sounded then — and sound now — like an authoritarian gaffe.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
Vance’s latest gaffe — still looks and sounds like a war.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026
He also tried to subtly rebut concerns among those who had watched the debate and were appalled by Graham’s gaffe.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
The gaffe became a defining moment of Quayle’s term.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 11, 2026
My gaffe was even worse in Karhidish, but Estraven did not smile, or wince.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Not all newsrooms disclose their use of AI, and in some cases have rolled out new tools that resulted in errors or PR gaffes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
But Jospin tripped up in his 2002 presidential rematch against Chirac, making a number of gaffes, including a swipe at his opponent's age that was seen as below the belt.
From Barron's ● Mar. 23, 2026
Under the leadership of Micheál Martin, the party has had what's being referred to as a steady campaign, no big breakthroughs but also no big gaffes.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2024
Then, in what Betts called a “crazy” top of the fifth, the boys in blue pounced on errors and gaffes, scoring five runs and wiping out the Yankees’ 5-0 lead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2024
So we tried to do it, making use of the best means available, and praying that heaven and our diplomatic colleagues would forgive any errors or gaffes that we might make.
From Fighting For Peace by Henry Van Dyke
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.
