error
er·ror
noun
a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention
- “he made a bad mistake”
- “she was quick to point out my errors”
- “I could understand his English in spite of his grammatical faults”
a misconception resulting from incorrect information
departure from what is ethically acceptable
Origin
From Middle English errour, from Anglo-Norman errour, borrowed from Old French error, from Latin error (“wandering about”, noun), derived from the verb errō (“to wander, to err”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌶𐌴𐌹 (airzei, “error”), Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (airzjan, “to lead astray”). More at err. By surface analysis, err + -or (suffix forming nouns of quality, state, or condition). Displaced native Old English dwild (“error”).
Phrases
- alpha error
- beta error
- category error
- comedy of errors
- error bar
- error box
- error carried forward
- error catastrophe
- error out
Related words
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.