human error

American  

[hyoo-muhn er-er] / ˈhyu mən ˈɛr ər /

noun

plural

human errors

1. a mistake made by a human worker or the propensity of humans to make such mistakes, as opposed to the failure of mechanical or electronic systems or devices.

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Other Word Forms

• human-error adjective

Example Sentences

When Brown and his team examined the report, they found that Georgia’s election board had already looked into its allegations, dismissing many altogether, and concluding that others came down to human error, not criminal wrongdoing.

From Salon • Apr. 14, 2026

One explanation for someone else’s information appearing on your tax return is simple human error.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 1, 2026

Anthropic recently accidentally released part of its internal source code for Claude Code due to "human error".

From BBC • Apr. 1, 2026

Investigators likely will be looking for one of three kinds of mistakes that could have caused the incident—intelligence failure, munition failure or human error, said former U.S. and Israeli military officials.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 6, 2026

Although many people greeted the new forensic sciences with reverence, attributing to them a godlike power, they were often susceptible to human error.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann