mistake
Americannoun
-
mistakes
plural
-
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)
-
mistakes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mistook,
past
-
mistaken,
past participle
-
mistaking
present participle
-
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)
-
mistakes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mistook,
past
-
mistaken,
past participle
-
mistaking
present participle
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:
“They’re targeting people who can’t afford to make a mistake with their retirement.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The clip went viral, in part because the mistake was so specifically inhuman.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Will your question invite helpful suggestions, or, unbeknownst to you, poke a bear who is exhausted by people making this same mistake over and over?
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2026
“I think that’s a mistake, especially since we’ve had this large rise not just in oil but also in interest rates,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 11, 2026
“And even after I did get in, I would have nightmares where it was all a big mistake, and I didn’t really make it in.”
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
We want our preferences remembered, our mistakes corrected and our food ready precisely when promised.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026
Leclerc felt pole had been on the cards if he had not made a few small mistakes on his final lap.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
She recommends that parents tell their child: “I realize I have made some mistakes that have hurt you and I want to hear about all of them.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026
Identifying an efficient route to ignition could help engineers design more practical systems while avoiding costly mistakes.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 10, 2026
It didn’t even feel right to only choose the good things, because you could learn from mistakes.
From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce
He has attended so many of her meetings that some foreign officials mistook him for her chief of staff.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 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
A cancer patient had the wrong part of their bowel removed during an operation after a surgeon mistook a tattoo for the site of a tumour, a report has said.
From BBC ● May 24, 2026
At least 59 detainees were freed because the system mistook them for other people.
From Barron's ● Mar. 17, 2026
Disoriented, I first mistook the noises as a carryover from my dream.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
However, he warned that some poisonous species, including the brown roll-rim, can be mistaken for edible mushrooms.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
I will never forget that kind gesture and frequently relate the experience to others who may have a mistaken impression of Justice Thomas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026
A shadow can briefly resemble a face, or one object can momentarily be mistaken for another.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 24, 2026
Police in Evanston, Illinois, are reportedly investigating after ICE agents detained and injured a U.S. citizen on Sunday in an apparent case of mistaken identity.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
Could she have been mistaken about the shadow by the stream?
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
LZ is especially sensitive to events of this kind, while its design also helps scientists reduce the chances of mistaking ordinary particle interactions for dark matter.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026
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
They tricked image recognition systems into mistaking photographs of cats for guacamole, and found new ways of embedding inaudible Alexa commands into five-second snippets of classical music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
This time there was no mistaking it: definite wary silence, and when Anita Rees spoke again, it was with a touch of frost.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
