Type I error

Save This Word!

noun

the error made in the statistical testing of a hypothesis by rejecting the null hypothesis when it is actually true.

QUIZ

WILL YOU SAIL OR STUMBLE ON THESE GRAMMAR QUESTIONS?

Smoothly step over to these common grammar mistakes that trip many people up. Good luck!

Question 1 of 7

Fill in the blank: I can’t figure out _____ gave me this gift.

who

whom

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of Type I error

First recorded in 1960–65

Words nearby Type I error

typeface, type founder, type genus, type-high, typeholder, Type I error, Type II error, type locality, type metal, type-out, typescript

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use Type I error in a sentence

Everyone out there who says, “Charlie Hebdo provoked,” is making the same fundamental error.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Our Duty Is to Keep Charlie Hebdo Alive|Ayaan Hirsi Ali|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
But yes, I pictured a James Bond-type just sauntering over to her.
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISIS|Marlow Stern|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
“I have to think her body type played a role,” said Rachel Greenblatt, a Lecturer in Jewish Studies at Harvard University.
Why Was Bess Myerson the First and Last Jewish Miss America?|Emily Shire|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
There were also crashes not due to either mechanical or human error but to a lack of warning of dangerous conditions.
Flight 8501 Poses Question: Are Modern Jets Too Automated to Fly?|Clive Irving|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST

But as everyone knows, he went on to say—not once but many times—that that was the greatest error of his career by far.
Steve Scalise and the Right’s Ridiculous Racial Blame Game|Michael Tomasky|January 2, 2015|DAILY BEAST
It is a very common error to consider these deposits as evidence of excessive excretion.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis|James Campbell Todd
Though the average speaker is generally limited by one type of voice, which he varies somewhat, it is not often disguised.
Expressive Voice Culture|Jessie Eldridge Southwick
My mother now tells me that she knew of this mistake, an error of the New York paper in copying the item from a Southern journal.
The Boarded-Up House|Augusta Huiell Seaman
It was a fatal error, for though the Spanish people might despise their King, they were intensely proud of their nationality.
Napoleon's Marshals|R. P. Dunn-Pattison
Accustomed to a written character, their eyes became wearied by the crabbedness and formality of type.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various

British Dictionary definitions for Type I error

type I error

noun

statistics the error of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is true, the probability of which is the significance level of a result

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012