mistake
[noun]
Synonyms:
- error, blunder, erratum, fault, faux pas, gaffe, howler (informal), miscalculation, oversight, slip
[verb]
Synonyms:
- misunderstand, misapprehend, misconstrue, misinterpret, misjudge, misread
- confuse with, mix up with, take for

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Antonyms: recognize
Contrasted words: discern, distinguish, grasp, perceive, differentiate, separate
Related Words: misconceive, misknow, addle, jumble, muddle, tumble, confounding, confusion, mistaking, inadvertence, disregarding, neglect, neglecting, omission, omitting, slight, slighting

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English Thesaurus: fault, defect, weakness, flaw, bug, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

I. mis‧take¹ S2 W2 /məˈsteɪk, mɪˈsteɪk/ noun
[Word Family: adverb: unmistakably, mistakenly; adjective: mistaken, unmistakable; verb: mistake; noun: mistake]

1. [countable] something that has been done in the wrong way, or an opinion or statement that is incorrect ⇒ error
mistake in
We may have made a mistake in our calculations.
The most common mistake is to plant them too deep.

2. [countable] something you do that is not sensible or has a bad result:
Buying the house seemed a great idea at the time, but now I can see it was a terrible mistake.
Marrying him was the biggest mistake she ever made.
make the mistake of doing something
I stupidly made the mistake of giving them my phone number.

3. by mistake if you do something by mistake, you do it without intending to Synonym : accidentally Antonym : deliberately, on purpose:
Someone must have left the door open by mistake.
I’m sorry, this letter is addressed to you – I opened it by mistake.

4. in mistake for somebody/something as a result of a mistake in which someone or something is wrongly thought to be someone or something else:
The boy was shot dead in mistake for a burglar.

5. we all make mistakes spoken used to tell someone not to be worried because they have made a mistake

6. make no mistake (about it) spoken used to emphasize that what you are saying is true, especially when you are warning about something serious or dangerous:
Make no mistake, this is the most serious threat our industry has ever seen.

7. and no mistake British English spoken informal used to emphasize the description you have just given:
Miles was a heartbreaker, and no mistake!

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

II. mistake² verb (past tense mistook /-ˈstʊk/, past participle mistaken /-ˈsteɪkən/) [transitive]
[Word Family: adverb: unmistakably, mistakenly; adjective: mistaken, unmistakable; verb: mistake; noun: mistake]
[Date: 1300-1400; Language: Old Norse; Origin: mistaka]

1. to understand something wrongly:
She mistook my meaning entirely.
Ken mistook her concern, thinking she was interested in him for another reason.

2. you can’t mistake somebody/something used to say that someone or something is very easy to recognize:
You can’t mistake her. She’s the one with the long red hair.

3. there is no mistaking somebody/something used to say that you are certain about something:
There’s no mistaking whose children they are – they all look just like Joe.
mistake somebody/something for somebody/something phrasal verb
to wrongly think that one person or thing is someone or something else:
A woman mistook him for a well-known actor, and asked him for his autograph.
The doctor mistook the symptoms for blood poisoning.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

mistake
noun
ADJ. big, great It is a great mistake to assume that your children will agree with you.
bad, dreadful, fundamental, ghastly, grave, serious, terrible | costly, expensive This dress was an expensive mistake.
disastrous, fatal | tragic | elementary, little, simple All those problems because of one little mistake!
common | genuine, honest | deliberate | past The company has learned from its past mistakes.
stupid | spelling
VERB + MISTAKE make Don't make the same mistakes as I did.
repeat | learn from | pay for Ordinary people are paying for the government's mistakes.
discover, realize Too late, she realized her mistake.
acknowledge, admit (to) | correct, put right, rectify
MISTAKE + VERB happen, occur Mistakes are bound to happen sometimes.
PREP. by ~ I picked up the wrong bag by mistake.
~ about I made a mistake about her.
PHRASES all a mistake I kept telling myself that it was all a terrible mistake.
an easy mistake to make Don't worry about it?it's an easy mistake to make!

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

mistake
verb
ADV. easily An unwary observer could easily mistake this constellation for a comet.
VERB + MISTAKE can't You can't mistake him. He's got long ginger hair.
PREP. for I'm sorry. I mistook you for George.
PHRASES there is no mistaking sth There was no mistaking the admiration in his eyes.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

mistake

make a mistake
The lab must have made a mistake – this can’t be right.
correct a mistake
Luckily I was able to correct the mistake before my boss saw it.
realize your mistake
As soon as he realized his mistake he turned in the right direction.
admit your mistake
It is better to admit your mistake and apologize.
mistakes happen
We’re very careful, but mistakes can happen.
a common mistake
A common mistake is to imagine that dogs think like humans.
a little/minor mistake
The essay was full of little mistakes.
a serious/grave mistake
There was a serious mistake in the instructions.
an honest mistake (=a mistake, and not a deliberate action)
Thomas admitted he had broken the law, but said that it had been an honest mistake.
a silly/stupid mistake
You need to be able to laugh at your own silly mistakes.
an easy mistake (to make)
She looks like her sister, so it’s an easy mistake to make.
a spelling mistake
She spotted two spelling mistakes in the article.
be full of mistakes
The article was full of mistakes.
it is a mistake to think/assume etc something
It would be a mistake to assume that all snakes are dangerous.
there must be some mistake (=used when you think someone has made a mistake)
There must be some mistake. I definitely booked a room for tonight.
be full of mistakes (=have a lot of mistakes)
The report was full of mistakes.
be all a mistake (=used to say that a situation happened because of a mistake)
He couldn’t bring himself to tell her it was all a mistake.
make a mistake
I just want to prevent you from making a terrible mistake.
learn from your mistakes
I’m sure he will learn from his mistakes.
repeat a mistake
We certainly do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past.
a big/great mistake
Buying this car was a big mistake.
a bad/terrible/dreadful etc mistake
It would be a terrible mistake to marry him.
a serious/grave mistake
The decision to take the money was a serious mistake.
a fatal mistake (=a very bad mistake, often one that ends something)
His fatal mistake was to underestimate his opponent.
a costly mistake (=that costs you money or has a bad result)
Hiring him turned out to be a costly mistake.
it is a mistake to do something
It is a mistake to try to see everything in the museum in one day.
make the mistake of doing something
He made the mistake of revealing his true intentions.
make the same mistake again/twice
We won’t make the same mistake again.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

mistake
noun
BAD: It doesn't matter if you do a slight mistake.
GOOD: It doesn't matter if you make a slight mistake.

Usage Note:
make a mistake (NOT do ): 'It's easy to make mistakes when you're tired.'
DO · HAVE · MAKE · TAKE
Many phrases begin with a very common very such as do, make, have, or take : ‘I felt very nervous about taking the test but, after having a long talk with Mrs Fisher, I decided I would just do my best and try not to make too many silly mistakes .’ These verbs can be combined with some nouns but not with others and since they do not have a clear meaning of their own, choosing the right combination can be a problem. Phrases which tend to cause difficulty are shown below.
HAVE
have a bath (or esp. AmE take ) ‘She’s probably upstairs having a bath.’
Have (your) breakfast ‘We usually have breakfast in the kitchen.’
Have (your) dinner ‘We had dinner and then went for a walk.’
Have a drink ‘I’ll collapse if I don’t have a drink soon.’
Have (an) experience ‘He has no experience of running a large company.’
Have fun ‘You can’t stop people from having fun.’
Have a holiday ‘It’s almost a year since we had a real holiday.’
Have an interview ‘I’ve had six interviews but no one has offered me a job.’
Have a lesson ‘Every morning we have three fifty-minute lessons.’
Have (your) lunch ‘Isn’t it about time we had lunch?’
Have an operation ‘Before I had the operation I could hardly walk.’
Have a party ‘On Saturday we’re having a party.’
Have a picnic ‘If it’s sunny we could have a picnic.’
Have a shower (or esp. AmE take) ‘It only takes me a minute to have a shower.’
TAKE
Take/do an examination ‘Why do we have to take so many tests?’
Take (your) medicine ‘Don’t forget to take your medicine.’
Take a pill ‘He refuses to take sleeping pills.’
Take/do a test ‘The last test I took was a disaster.’
MAKE
Make an effort ‘I had to make a big effort not to laugh.’
Make a journey ‘It was the first journey he’d made all on his own.’
Make a mistake ‘He has made a serious mistake.’
Make a noise ‘How can one small child make so much noise?’
Make progress ‘I made very little progress at the start of the course.’
DO
Do your best ‘Don’t worry, Tim. Just do your best.’
Do (or cause) damage ‘The storm did a lot of damage to the crops.’
Do an exercise ‘Have you done your exercises today?’
Do an experiment ‘To do this experiment, you’ll need two eggs.’
Do (sb) good ‘The holiday has done him a lot of good.’
Do harm ‘A scandal would do his reputation a lot of harm.’
Do your homework ‘Have you done your homework yet?’
Do a job ‘I’ve got one or two jobs to do this evening.’
Do the/some shopping ‘Jake has gone into town to do some shopping.’
Do research ‘We need to do a lot more research.’
Do things ‘We’ve done lots of different things today.’
Do your training ‘Where did you do your training?’
Note also: do something/anything etc: ‘I can’t come now – I’m doing something.’ ‘He hasn’t done anything wrong.'

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Common Errors ▲

fault a problem in a machine, system, design etc that causes damage or makes it not work properly:
The fire was caused by an electrical fault.
a fault in the engine
defect a fault in something such as a product or machine, resulting from the way it was made or designed:
Cars are tested for defects before they leave the factory.
weakness a part of a plan, system, or argument that is not as good as the other parts, and makes it likely to fail:
What are the strengths and weaknesses of each method?
flaw a fault in a plan, system, argument etc, especially one that makes it useless or not effective:
Your argument has a fundamental flaw.
There was one major flaw in his suggestion – we didn’t have enough money.
bug a fault in a computer program:
A bug in the system was quickly fixed.
glitch a small fault in the way something works, that can usually be easily corrected:
I noticed a small glitch when installing the software.
mistake something that is wrong in someone’s spelling, grammar, calculations etc:
The article was full of spelling mistakes.
there’s something wrong with something used when saying that there is a problem in a machine, car etc, but you do not know what it is:
There’s something wrong with the computer – it won’t close down.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

mistake something incorrect that you accidentally do, say, or write:
a spelling mistake
I made a mistake – it should say £230, not £320.
error formal a mistake:
an error in the report
grammatical errors
He had made a serious error on his tax form.
misprint a small mistake in something that is printed:
There was a misprint in the article, and instead of ‘pleasant’ it said ‘pheasant’.
typo informal a mistake in something that has been typed or printed:
I spotted a couple of typos in the letter.
inaccuracy formal a piece of information that is not completely correct:
The report contained several inaccuracies.
mix-up a careless mistake in which one name, time, address etc has been confused with another, so that the details of something are wrong:
There was a mix-up over the train times and I missed my train.
slip-up a careless mistake when you are doing something:
The other team took advantage of the goalie’s slip-up.
oversight a mistake in which you forget something or do not notice something:
Through some oversight, the brochures were not ready by the right date.
a slip of the tongue a mistake in which you accidentally say a similar sounding word:
When I said Thursday, I meant Tuesday. It was a slip of the tongue.
faux pas /ˌfəʊ ˈpɑː, ˈfəʊ pɑː $ ˌfoʊ ˈpɑː/ formal an embarrassing mistake in a social situation, when you do or say something that you shouldn’t:
Harris, trying to be funny, addressed the waiter as ‘boy’. A deathly silence followed this faux pas.
blunder a stupid mistake caused by not thinking carefully enough about what you are saying or doing, which could have serious results:
In a serious blunder by the hospital, two babies were sent home with the wrong parents.
gaffe /ɡæf/ an embarrassing and stupid mistake made in a social situation or in public:
a serious gaffe in her speech about immigration
howler British English a very bad mistake, especially one that shows you do not know something, and that often makes other people laugh:
Photographers should be careful of making classic howlers, such as having a tree grow out of your subject’s head.
cock-up British English informal a silly mistake when you are doing something – a very informal use:
They made a cock-up with the bill.
The government is anxious to avoid any more cock-ups.
misunderstand to think that someone means one thing, when in fact they mean something else:
I think you've misunderstood what I'm saying.
Some companies appear to have misunderstood the new rules.
Don't misunderstand me - I have nothing against these people.
get somebody/something wrong especially spoken to misunderstand someone or something - used especially in everyday spoken English:
Looks like you've got it all wrong.
You've got me all wrong - that's not what I meant.
Tell me if I've got it wrong.
misread/misjudge to wrongly believe that someone’s actions show that they have a particular opinion or feeling, or that a situation means that you should behave in particular way:
The party completely misread the mood of the voters at the last election.
Eddie wondered if he should be scared, too. Maybe he had misjudged the situation.
misinterpret to not understand the true meaning of someone’s actions or words, so that you believe something that is not in fact true:
A lot of people misinterpreted what I was saying, and have called me a racist.
Struggling with an unfamiliar language, the simplest conversations were misinterpreted.
misconstrue formal to misunderstand something that someone has said or done:
She claimed that members of the press had misconstrued her comments.
miss the point to not understand the main part or meaning of what someone is saying or what something is intended to do:
I think you're missing the whole point of the film.
If he thinks it's all about how much profit he can make, then he's missing the point.
get the wrong end of the stick British English informal to make a mistake about one part of something that you are told, so that you understand the rest of it in completely the wrong way:
Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought she was leaving him, not the other way round.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

misunderstand to think that someone means one thing, when in fact they mean something else:
I think you've misunderstood what I'm saying.
Some companies appear to have misunderstood the new rules.
Don't misunderstand me - I have nothing against these people.
get somebody/something wrong especially spoken to misunderstand someone or something - used especially in everyday spoken English:
Looks like you've got it all wrong.
You've got me all wrong - that's not what I meant.
Tell me if I've got it wrong.
mistake to misunderstand someone's intentions, and react in the wrong way:
He was a very private man, and some people mistook this for unfriendliness.
I thought she wanted us to leave her alone, but I may been mistaken.
misread/misjudge to wrongly believe that someone’s actions show that they have a particular opinion or feeling, or that a situation means that you should behave in particular way:
The party completely misread the mood of the voters at the last election.
Eddie wondered if he should be scared, too. Maybe he had misjudged the situation.
misinterpret to not understand the true meaning of someone’s actions or words, so that you believe something that is not in fact true:
A lot of people misinterpreted what I was saying, and have called me a racist.
Struggling with an unfamiliar language, the simplest conversations were misinterpreted.
misconstrue formal to misunderstand something that someone has said or done:
She claimed that members of the press had misconstrued her comments.
miss the point to not understand the main part or meaning of what someone is saying or what something is intended to do:
I think you're missing the whole point of the film.
If he thinks it's all about how much profit he can make, then he's missing the point.
get the wrong end of the stick British English informal to make a mistake about one part of something that you are told, so that you understand the rest of it in completely the wrong way:
Maybe I got the wrong end of the stick. I thought she was leaving him, not the other way round.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

mistake
mɪsˈteɪk
See: by mistake

[TahlilGaran] English Idioms Dictionary ▲