mistake
/mɪˈsteɪk
/noun
1An act or judgement that is misguided or wrong: coming here was a mistake she made the mistake of thinking they were important...
- The simple truth is that terrible mistakes have been made.
- People with great SAT scores go on to make the same stupid mistakes in their lives that we all make.
- The danger in Iraq is repeating the biggest mistake - yielding to gradualism.
Synonyms
error, fault, inaccuracy, omission, slip, blunder, miscalculation, misunderstanding, flaw, oversight, misinterpretation, fallacy, gaffe, faux pas, solecism, misapprehension, misconception, misreading
informal slip-up, boo-boo, howler, boner, fail
British informal boob, clanger
North American informal goof
British informal, dated bloomer
rare misreckoning
1.1Something, especially a word, figure, or fact, which is not correct; an inaccuracy: a couple of spelling mistakes...
- The retyping explains the spelling, and also explains how a couple of spelling mistakes were introduced.
- I'll upload the photos and correct my spelling and grammar mistakes tomorrow.
- I don't want to see any more forgotten corners or misspelled words or mistakes!
Synonyms
misprint, printing error/mistake, typographical error/mistake, typesetting error/mistake, keyboarding error/mistake, keying error/mistake, typing error/mistake, corrigendum, erratum;
British literal
informal typo
verb (past mistook /mɪˈstʊk/; past participle mistaken /mɪˈsteɪk(ə)n/) [with object]
1Be wrong about: because I was inexperienced I mistook the nature of our relationship...
- The marshal mistook the message, thinking the emperor wanted to sweep the whole province.
- But he later denied the reports, saying the media mistook his remarks in a meeting with the leader.
- You were rude to him, and I do think you mistook his motives.
Synonyms
misunderstand, misinterpret, get wrong, put a wrong interpretation on, misconstrue, misapprehend, misread, miss, take amiss
be wrong, be in error, be at fault, be under a misapprehension, be misinformed, be misguided, be wide of the mark, be barking up the wrong tree, get the wrong end of the stick
1.1 (mistake someone/thing for) Wrongly identify someone or something as: she thought he’d mistaken her for Diana...
- Mind you, people are often mistaking me for someone else.
- People often mistook it for a girl's name.
- As I said above, people often mistake me for a 16 year old, even though I'm 25.
Synonyms
confuse with, mix up with, take for, misinterpret as, confound with
Phrases
and no mistake
by mistake
make no mistake (about it)
there is no mistaking ——
Derivatives
mistakable
/ (also mistakeable) adjective ...- His novels frequently star fanciable middle-aged men easily mistakable for the author's alter-egos, legends in their own fleeces, their lives curious crossbreeds of the dashing and the banal.
- With the Nikon, she's poetic, warm, sad, excellent, but mistakable for someone else.
- It's a five-door hatchback, potentially mistakeable for as many as 730 other currently available five-door hatchbacks.
mistakably
- The other solution, which I've mentioned before, is that Larson and Pierre never appeared in the Rome adventure, and were wrongly ‘chronicled’ by Lara's professor-friend, instead of two rivals who just so happened to have very mistakeably similar names.
Origin
Late Middle English (as a verb): from Old Norse mistaka 'take in error', probably influenced in sense by Old French mesprendre.