mistake
Americannoun
-
an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.
- Synonyms:
- oversight, fault, erratum, inaccuracy
-
a misunderstanding or misconception.
- Antonyms:
- understanding
verb (used with object)
-
to regard or identify wrongly as something or someone else.
I mistook him for the mayor.
-
to understand, interpret, or evaluate wrongly; misunderstand; misinterpret.
- Synonyms:
- err, misjudge, misconceive
verb (used without object)
idioms
noun
-
an error or blunder in action, opinion, or judgment
-
a misconception or misunderstanding
verb
-
(tr) to misunderstand; misinterpret
she mistook his meaning
-
to take (for), interpret (as), or confuse (with)
she mistook his direct manner for honesty
-
(tr) to choose badly or incorrectly
he mistook his path
-
(intr) to make a mistake in action, opinion, judgment, etc
Commonly Confused
See misnomer.
Synonym Usage
Mistake, blunder, error, slip refer to deviations from right, accuracy, correctness, or truth. A mistake, grave or trivial, is caused by bad judgment or a disregard of rule or principle: It was a mistake to argue. A blunder is a careless, stupid, or gross mistake in action or speech, suggesting awkwardness, heedlessness, or ignorance: Through his blunder the message was lost. An error (often interchanged with mistake ) is an unintentional wandering or deviation from accuracy, or right conduct: an error in addition. A slip is usually a minor mistake made through haste or carelessness: a slip of the tongue.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mistakesimple
-
mistakessimple
-
have mistakenperfect
-
has mistakenperfect
-
am mistakingprogressive
-
are mistakingprogressive
-
is mistakingprogressive
-
have been mistakingperfect progressive
-
has been mistakingperfect progressive
Past
-
mistooksimple
-
had mistakenperfect
-
was mistakingprogressive
-
were mistakingprogressive
-
had been mistakingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mistake
First recorded in 1300–30; Middle English mistaken (verb), from Old Norse mistaka “to take in error.” see origin at mis- 1, take
Explanation
A mistake is an error, a goof, a slip-up. When you make a mistake, you've done something incorrectly. Mistake has a lot of uses, but they all have to do with doing the wrong thing. A mistake in math class will result in the wrong answer, but a mistake with a gun could get someone killed. If you mix up two people, you're mistaking one for the other. When you make a mistake, the best thing to do is admit it and try to make up for it; not apologizing for a mistake is another mistake.
Vocabulary lists containing mistake
"The Experiment" and "Superstition"
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"Indian Summer Sun" and "Almost Evenly Divided"
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"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
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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:
A Federal Reserve interest-rate decision is hovering over stock markets for Wednesday, but don’t make the mistake of overthinking it, says MFS Investment Management’s chief global investment strategist, Robert Almeida.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Their fear has been the opposite mistake: reacting to price changes that will have washed out of the data by the time higher rates take effect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Ellis: The biggest mistake is letting short-term noise dominate your thinking about the long-term trend.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Making sure paperwork is correct is one of the most important tasks, because one mistake can lead to forfeits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
Less like he was a mistake, a one-off that no one could explain.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
Taking the Fifth is not an admission of guilt - it is designed to protect individuals against coercion, mistakes, and unfair burden-shifting.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
"Our goal was to examine how these partner proteins coordinate proinsulin folding and remove any misfolded mistakes, as these steps are essential for the health of insulin-producing cells."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
In an emergency video call with hundreds of cyber-security professionals, the firm described how the AI worked at superhuman speed but also made strange decisions and mistakes that no human hacker would have made.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
MarketWatch: Are retail investors using AI effectively or are they making expensive mistakes?
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
“But it’s actually quite good. I’ll fix the mistakes later. Let’s keep working, shall we? We just might complete this order if we both keep going.”
From "Rickshaw Girl" by Mitali Perkins
Thotsakan's guitarist Chanate Trasing says he initially mistook the smoke for dry ice used in stage performances.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
During a nighttime field survey, researchers initially mistook the animal for a mushroom, highlighting just how convincing its disguise is.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 17, 2026
At least 59 detainees were freed because the system mistook them for other people.
From Barron's ● Mar. 17, 2026
This time it hit after he booted his own center Steven Jamerson II from a game at Michigan State on Feb. 17, overreacting because he mistook a clean basketball play for something else.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 8, 2026
Esteban, who had not had a chance to get to know his daughter, mistook her placid amiability and her eagerness to set the table with the silver candlesticks for love.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
It’s not clear how Wall Street came up with this mistaken view.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 23, 2026
“They’re leaving consumers with the mistaken impression that the Lilly product is vastly superior to the Novo product,” said Kuckelman.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Unless clear limits are introduced against "mistaken belief" in consent, victims' efforts may be "rendered futile", she told AFP.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
Police later said it was a case of mistaken identity after disinformation was spread online.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
But my hermanitas were mistaken if they thought I was going to drive them around in that death trap.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Traditionally, a Commonwealth-centric sport, there is no mistaking Glasgow 2026 is a major occasion for netball.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
This is an easy category error for anyone to make when talking about tourism, mistaking a country’s boundless beauty and hospitality toward visitors for anything else.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026
The Whoop tripped up early, mistaking my late-night reading for light sleep.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
Sabrina Carpenter has apologized after sparking backlash for mistaking a Coachella fan’s traditional Arabic cheer for yodeling, which she described as “weird.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
I tried to try to make a wisecrack about him mistaking me for a football, but blacked out before I could say it.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
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.
