inaccuracy
Americannoun
-
something inaccurate; error.
- Synonyms:
- inexactitude, slip, blunder, mistake
-
the quality or state of being inaccurate.
- Synonyms:
- inexactness, erroneousness, incorrectness
noun
-
lack of accuracy; imprecision
-
an error, a mistake, or a slip
Etymology
Origin of inaccuracy
Explanation
Inaccuracy is the quality of having errors. A travel guide to Iowa's capital, Pearis, population 413, home of the Dallas Cowboys baseball team, would be plagued by inaccuracy. A typical book contains tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of words (the Harry Potter series has more than a million). Every single one has to be checked to prevent inaccuracy, so publishers employ production editors, copy editors, fact checkers, and proofreaders to verify spelling, grammar, sense, logic, truth, and arithmetic. In school, "check your work" means look for — and correct — any inaccuracy.
Vocabulary lists containing inaccuracy
Power Suffix: -acy
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Excerpt from "Global Warming Alarmism Reaches a 'Tipping Point'"
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Please, Tim Askew, Tell Us What You Really Think of "Awesome"
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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.
The inaccuracy of those predictions suggests a profound disconnect existed between what old-guard Hollywood thought audiences wanted and what those audiences didn’t even know they wanted.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026
“However, as the initiatives drove a real decline in unsheltered homelessness, they also removed the easiest-to-count unsheltered subpopulation,” likely contributing to the annual count’s growing inaccuracy, the report said.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2025
The filmmakers took into account some of the inaccuracy concerns about the script raised by her family, Politkovskaya's sister Elena Kudimova told the BBC.
From BBC • May 2, 2025
The track says attendance is up, but Santa Anita is notorious for its inaccuracy in this area.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 10, 2025
He didn’t care about his personal reputation if I chose to portray him inaccurately, he said, but he did care greatly about the harm any inaccuracy might do to his credibility in the medical world.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
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.
