Word.ws English Dictionary

err on the side of caution

err on the side of caution verb: to act in the least risky manner in a situation in which one is uncertain about the consequences.

Verb

err on the side of caution (third-person singular simple present errs on the side of caution, present participle erring on the side of caution, simple past and past participle erred on the side of caution)

  1. (idiomatic) To act in the least risky manner in a situation in which one is uncertain about the consequences.
    • They are all zealous to the last degree in support of the extreme policy. . . . They certainly will not err on the side of caution.1867 January 15, “The Impeachment of the President—Probabilities and Possibilities”, in New York Times, page 4
    • In any uncertain situation, government tends to err on the side of caution and delay.1976 Oct. 29, James J. Kilpatrick, "Bureaucracy Infects Drug Industry," St. Petersburg Independent/Washington Star Syndicate, p. 23-A (retrieved 1 Oct 2008)

err on the side of caution meaning in Arabic

err on the side of caution in Arabic

to act in the least risky manner
تتوخى الحيطة والحذر, تأخذ بأسباب الحيطة والحذر

Forms of err on the side of caution

third-person singular presenterrs on the side of caution
present participleerring on the side of caution
past participleerred on the side of caution
pasterred on the side of caution

Questions about err on the side of caution

What does err on the side of caution mean?
Err on the side of caution means to act in the least risky manner in a situation in which one is uncertain about the consequences.
What is err on the side of caution in Arabic?
Err on the side of caution in Arabic is تتوخى الحيطة والحذر, تأخذ بأسباب الحيطة والحذر. See Err on the side of caution meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is err on the side of caution?
Err on the side of caution is a verb.
What is the past tense of err on the side of caution?
The past tense of err on the side of caution is erred on the side of caution.

Words near err on the side of caution in the dictionary

  1. ERPs
  2. Erps-Kwerps
  3. Erqi
  4. err
  5. err on the side of
  6. err on the side of caution
  7. Err.
  8. errability
  9. errable
  10. errableness
  11. errabund

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: err on the side of caution (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-err on the side of caution.ogg.

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