mistake
noun
Mistake — a wrong action stemming from poor judgment or simple inattention
Definition
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"
In depth
A mistake is a wrong action attributable to bad judgment, ignorance, or inattention, the most common and universally understood term for an error committed without deliberate intent to cause harm. The word carries a degree of forgiveness within it, implying fallibility rather than malice, the natural consequence of being human and therefore imperfect.
Origin
The word descends from Old Norse mistaka, to take wrongly, formed from mis- (wrongly) and taka (to take). That image of mistaken taking, grasping the wrong thing rather than the right one, underlies the word's enduring sense of an error rooted in misjudgment rather than deliberate wrongdoing, an honest failure to correctly perceive or choose.
Usage examples
"He made a bad mistake in his calculations, one that took the entire team hours to finally locate and correct."
"She had learned, over the years, to treat her own mistakes with more patience than she once had."
"The historian traced the war's origins to a single diplomatic mistake, compounded by decades of subsequent miscalculation."
How to use it
Mistake is universally accessible vocabulary across nearly every register, valuable for its relatively gentle, forgiving connotation compared to harsher synonyms like 'fault' or 'blunder,' suiting both casual and serious writing about human fallibility.
Related concepts
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