error
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
5 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "error", 5-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "error" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "error" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
error is aEnglishnoun. It means: The state, quality, or condition of being wrong. Pronounced /ˈɛɹə/. It ranks #2,731 in English word frequency. Often confused with euro and errors.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | error |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈɛɹə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,731 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for error is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈɛɹə/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,731 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for error, with forms such as "eror", "erorr", and "errorr". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "euro", "errors", "err", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 (ai… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is error, spelled E-R-R-O-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The state, quality, or condition of being wrong.
- 2A mistake; an accidental wrong action or a false statement not made deliberately.
- 3Sin; transgression.
- 4A failure to complete a task, usually involving a premature termination.
- 5The difference between a measured or calculated value and a true one.
- 6A play which is scored as having been made incorrectly.
- 7One or more mistakes in a trial that could be grounds for review of the judgement.
- 8Any alteration in the DNA chemical structure occurring during DNA replication, recombination or repairing.
- 9An unintentional deviation from the inherent rules of a language variety made by a second language learner.
Etymology
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).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: eror,erorr,errorr,errro,reror
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for error
Misspelling Variants of "error"
Frequency rank: #2,731 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter E in our English index: