error - Definition | Dictionary definition of error

Definition of error

Nouns

a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention

"she was quick to point out my errors"

Synonyms:: fault, mistake

Types:: show 28 types...; hide 28 types...; blot, smear, smirch, spot, stain
an act that brings discredit to the person who does it; confusion, mix-up
a mistake that results from taking one thing to be another; incursion
the mistake of incurring liability or blame; miscalculation, misestimation, misreckoning
a mistake in calculating; backfire, boomerang
a miscalculation that recoils on its maker; rounding, rounding error
(mathematics) a miscalculation that results from rounding off numbers to a convenient number of decimals; truncation error
(mathematics) a miscalculation that results from cutting off a numerical calculation before it is finished; distortion
the mistake of misrepresenting the facts; miscue, parapraxis, slip, slip-up
a minor inadvertent mistake usually observed in speech or writing or in small accidents or memory lapses etc.; Freudian slip
a slip-up that (according to Sigmund Freud) results from the operation of unconscious wishes or conflicts and can reveal unconscious processes in normal healthy individuals; offside
(sport) the mistake of occupying an illegal position on the playing field (in football, soccer, ice hockey, field hockey, etc.); lapse, oversight
a mistake resulting from inattention; omission, skip
a mistake resulting from neglect; failure
an unexpected omission; bloomer, blooper, blunder, boner, boo-boo, botch, bungle, flub, foul-up, fuckup, pratfall
an embarrassing mistake; bobble
the momentary juggling of a batted or thrown baseball; snafu
an acronym often used by soldiers in World War II: situation normal all fucked up; spectacle
a blunder that makes you look ridiculous; used in the phrase `make a spectacle of' yourself; bull
a serious and ludicrous blunder; fumble, muff
(sports) dropping the ball; fluff
a blunder (especially an actor's forgetting the lines); faux pas, gaffe, gaucherie, slip, solecism
a socially awkward or tactless act; howler
a glaring blunder; clanger
a conspicuous mistake whose effects seem to reverberate; misstep, stumble, trip, trip-up
an unintentional but embarrassing blunder; balls-up, ballup, cockup, mess-up
something badly botched or muddled; betise, folly, foolishness, imbecility, stupidity
a stupid mistake; renege, revoke
the mistake of not following suit when able to do so

Type of:: nonaccomplishment, nonachievement
an act that does not achieve its intended goal

inadvertent incorrectness

Synonyms:: erroneousness

Types:: deviation
the error of a compass due to local magnetic disturbances

Type of:: incorrectness, wrongness
the quality of not conforming to fact or truth

a misconception resulting from incorrect information

Synonyms:: erroneous belief

Type of:: misconception
an incorrect conception

(baseball) a failure of a defensive player to make an out when normal play would have sufficed

Synonyms:: misplay

Type of:: failure
an act that fails

departure from what is ethically acceptable

Synonyms:: wrongdoing

Type of:: evil, evilness
the quality of being morally wrong in principle or practice

(computer science) the occurrence of an incorrect result produced by a computer

Synonyms:: computer error

Types:: show 6 types...; hide 6 types...; hardware error
error resulting from a malfunction of some physical component of the computer; disk error
error resulting from malfunction of a magnetic disk; programming error, software error
error resulting from bad code in some program involved in producing the erroneous result; run-time error, runtime error, semantic error
an error in logic or arithmetic that must be detected at run time; syntax error
an error of language resulting from code that does not conform to the syntax of the programming language; algorithm error
error resulting from the choice of the wrong algorithm or method for achieving the intended result

Type of:: happening, natural event, occurrence, occurrent
an event that happens

part of a statement that is not correct

"the book was full of errors"

Synonyms:: mistake

Types:: corrigendum
a printer's error; to be corrected; erratum, literal, literal error, misprint, typo, typographical error
a mistake in printed matter resulting from mechanical failures of some kind