error

Alternative forms

• errour (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English errour, from Anglo-Norman errour, borrowed from Old French error, from Latin error (“wandering about”), infinitive of 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).

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: ĕrʹə(r); IPA^(key): /ˈɛɹ.ə(ɹ)/
• (US) enPR: ĕrʹər
  • IPA^(key): (Mary–marry–merry merger) /ˈeɹ.ɚ/, /ˈɛɹ.ɚ/; (without the Mary–marry–merry merger) /ˈɛɹ.ɚ/; (some accents) /ɛɚ/

  • Audio (US, Mary–marry–merry merger):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛɹə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: error
• Homophone: era (non-rhotic)
• Homophones: air, e'er, ere, heir (in some US pronunciations)
• Homophone: err (in some US pronunciations)

Noun

error (countable and uncountable, plural errors)

1. (uncountable) The state, quality, or condition of being wrong.
   • 1913, The Inland printer:

     "Am I in error in marking out the s in the word assistants used in the following manner? [...]"

2. (countable) A mistake; an accidental wrong action or a false statement not made deliberately.
   • 2011 October 22, Sam Sheringham, “Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Chris Brunt sliced the spot-kick well wide but his error was soon forgotten as Olsson headed home from a corner.

   • 2022 December 14, “Network News: HGV driver banned after Coulsdon bridge crash”, in RAIL, number 972, page 7:

     "Well over 400 trains and thousands of passengers from across the South were disrupted by this single error of judgement," said Network Rail's Route Director for Sussex, Katie Frost.

3. (countable, uncountable) Sin; transgression.
4. (computing, countable) A failure to complete a task, usually involving a premature termination.
6. (statistics, countable) The difference between a measured or calculated value and a true one.
7. (baseball, countable) A play which is scored as having been made incorrectly.
8. (appellate law, uncountable) One or more mistakes in a trial that could be grounds for review of the judgement.
9. Any alteration in the DNA chemical structure occurring during DNA replication, recombination or repairing.
10. (linguistics) An unintentional deviation from the inherent rules of a language variety made by a second language learner.

Verb

error (third-person singular simple present errors, present participle erroring, simple past and past participle errored)

1. (computing) To function improperly due to an error, especially accompanied by error message.

   The web-page took a long time to load and errored out.

   Remove that line of code and the script should stop erroring there.

   This directory errors with a "Permission denied" message.

2. (telecommunications) To show or contain an error or fault.

   The block transmission errored near the start and could not be received.

3. (nonstandard) To err.
   • 1993 December, Arie Kaufman, editor, Rendering, Visualization, and Rasterization Hardware, Springer-Verlag New York LLC:

     Pixels which are mathematically outside of a triangle, but which are included for anti-aliasing purposes can be generated with colour and depth information outside of the valid range. The ADE should identify these cases and clamp the output to the minimum or maximum value depending on the direction it has errored in.

   • 2000 December, Randy W. Kamphaus, Clinical Assessment of Child And Adolescent Intelligence, Allyn & Bacon:

     By doing so examiners are erroring in the direction of drawing hypotheses based on greater evidence of reliability and validity.

   • 2001 November, Daniel D. Dancer, Shards and Circles: Artistic Adventures in Spirit and Ecology, Trafford Publishing:

     Error is not just permitted by diversity; it is what permits diversity.... The beetle had “errored” beautifully

   • 2002 May, Sylvain Beauregard, Passion Celine Dion the Book: The Ultimate Guide for the Fan!, Trafford Publishing:

     Many other celebrities errored in the political comments area...

See also

• error on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• unerring

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin errōrem.

Noun

error m (plural errores)

1. error

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin errōrem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Central) [əˈror]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [əˈro]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [eˈroɾ]

Noun

error m or (archaic, regional or poetic) f (plural errors)

1. error

   Synonyms: equivoc, equivocació, incorrecció

Further reading

• “error” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “error”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “error” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “error” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin errōrem.

Noun

error m (plural errores)

1. error

   Synonym: erro

Further reading

• “error”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

Etymology 1

From Proto-Italic *erzōs. Equivalent to erro (“I err, I stray”) +‎ -or.

Etymology 2

References

• “error”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “error”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• error in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• error in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the wanderings of Ulysses: errores Ulixis
    
  • to be mistaken: in errore versari
    
  • to be in gross error, seriously misled: magno errore teneri
    
  • to be in gross error, seriously misled: in magno errore versari
    
  • to fall into error: erroribus implicari (Tusc. 4. 27. 58)
    
  • to take a false step: per errorem labi, or simply labi
    
  • to lead a person into error: aliquem in errorem inducere, rapere
    
  • to get a mistaken notion into the mind: errorem animo imbibere
    
  • to imbibe error from one's mother's breasts: errorem cum lacte nutricis sugere (Tusc. 3. 1. 2)
    
  • to banish an error, do away with a false impression: errorem tollere
    
  • to banish an error, do away with a false impression: errorem amputare et circumcīdere
    
  • to totally eradicate false principles: errorem stirpitus extrahere
    
  • to amend, correct one's mistake: errorem deponere, corrigere
    
  • to undeceive a person: alicui errorem demere, eripere, extorquere
    
  • (ambiguous) erroneous opinion: opinionis error
    
  • (ambiguous) a wide-spread error: error longe lateque diffusus