blunder
Other forms: blunders; blundering; blundered
A blunder is an embarrassing mistake. Accidentally called your new boyfriend by your old boyfriend's name? Ouch. That's a blunder you don't want to repeat.
Has an embarrassing mistake ever made you feel like you’re stumbling around with your eyes closed? If so, it won’t surprise you to learn that blunder comes from the Old Norse word blundra, meaning to “shut one's eyes.” It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that blunder came to refer to a stupid or embarrassing mistake, or as a verb, to describe making such a mistake, as in “I tend to blunder when I'm nervous.”
-
an embarrassing mistake
-
types:
- show 9 types...
- hide 9 types...
-
bobble
the momentary juggling of a batted or thrown baseball
-
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
-
commit a faux pas or a fault or make a serious mistake“I blundered during the job interview”
-
synonyms:
boob, drop the ball, goof, sin
-
type of:
-
breach, break, go against, infract, offend, transgress, violate
act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises
-
breach, break, go against, infract, offend, transgress, violate
-
utter impulsively
-
make one's way clumsily or blindly
-
synonyms:
fumble
-
type of:
-
go across, go through, pass
go across or through
-
go across, go through, pass
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
Vocabulary lists containing blunder
Named after a long line of men in his family, twelve-year-old Andrew Joseph Tyler visits his ancestral home in Missouri and gets transported back in time.
After escaping a Soviet military camp, U.S. Air Force pilot Joseph "Mack" Makatozi navigates the Siberian wilderness as a native tracker is on his trail.
In this first book of The Reckoners series, eighteen-year-old David Charleston looks for weaknesses in the supernaturally powerful Epics so that he can avenge the murder of his father and restore freedom to the city that used to be Chicago.
Look up blunder for the last time
Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know.
