error
Other forms: errors
"I'm sorry, sir, there's been some sort of error in the kitchen," is what a restaurant waiter might say to a patron who ordered the fish but was mistakenly served a plateful of worms instead.
Simply put, an error is a mistake. However, that mistake is more likely due to a lapse in judgment or skill than to an accident. A plane crash that occurs after the pilot mistakenly presses the "pilot eject" button is said to be caused by "human error." A baseball play in which the pitcher throws the ball to second base instead of first because he was distracted by a pretty girl in the stands is an error — one that might cost his team the game.
Definitions of error
-
a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention“she was quick to point out my errors”
-
types:
- show 27 types...
- hide 27 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
-
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.
-
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
-
bloomer, blooper, blunder, boo-boo, botch, bungle, flub, foul-up, pratfall
an embarrassing mistake
-
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
-
failure
an unexpected omission
-
bobble
the momentary juggling of a batted or thrown baseball
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
type of:
-
nonaccomplishment, nonachievement
an act that does not achieve its intended goal
-
a misconception resulting from incorrect information
-
synonyms:
erroneous belief
-
type of:
-
misconception
an incorrect conception
-
misconception
-
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
-
deviation
-
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
-
type of:
-
misstatement
a statement that contains a mistake
-
corrigendum
-
departure from what is ethically acceptable
-
synonyms:
wrongdoing
-
(baseball) a failure of a defensive player to make an out when normal play would have sufficed
-
(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
-
programming error, software error
error resulting from bad code in some program involved in producing the erroneous result
-
algorithm error
error resulting from the choice of the wrong algorithm or method for achieving the intended result
-
disk error
error resulting from malfunction of a magnetic disk
-
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
-
type of:
-
happening, natural event, occurrence, occurrent
an event that happens
Pronunciation
US
/ˈɛrər/
UK
/ˈɛrə/
Cite this entry
Style:
MLA
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
A paragraph of text
Copy citationDISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘error'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
Send us feedback
Word Family
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Look up error for the last time
Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know.
