errant
Syllables: er·rant/ˈɛɹ(ə)nt/US/ˈɛɹənt/
errant adjective: straying from the proper course or standard, or outside established limits. Also the obsolete form of arrant.
Adjective
errant (comparative more errant, superlative most errant)
- Straying from the proper course or standard, or outside established limits.
- In that there are just seven Planets or errant Stars in the lower Orbs of heaven: but it is now demonstrable unto sense, that there are many more1650, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 6th book, page 244
- They were all doomed to be disappointed, however, for the errant engine decided at Stanley junction to spend the remainder of its crowded hour of freedom on the Aberdeen line, and finally came to rest, short of breath, in the dip between Ballathie and Cargill, near the bridge over the Tay.1941 October, “Notes and News: A Highland Runaway”, in Railway Magazine, page 469
- Roving around; wandering.
- Prone to erring or making errors; misbehaving.
- We ran down the street in pursuit of the errant dog.
Noun
errant (plural errants)
Also used as
errant is also the obsolete form of arrant.
Examples of errant in a sentence
- He thinks of himself as a latter-day knight errant, out on a quest fighting dragons. It’s not very practical, but it is romantic.
- We are clearly not struggling to find an errant pair of AirPods.
- Cheek back (verb): defensive strategy of a bism who has been reprimanded for errant behaviour.
Forms of errant
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more errant |
| superlative | most errant |
| alternative form | arrant |
| alternative form | erraunt |
| Noun | |
| plural | errants |
Origin of errant
From Middle English erraunt [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman erraunt, from Old French errant, the present participle of errer (“to walk (to); to wander (to); (figuratively) to travel, voyage”), and then: * from Vulgar Latin iterāre (compare Late Latin itinerāre, itinerāri (“to travel, voyage”)), from Latin iter (“a route (including a journey, trip; a course; a path; a road)”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”); and * from Latin errantem, the accusative feminine or masculine singular of errāns (“straying, errant; wandering”), the present active participle of errō (“to rove, wander; to get lost, go astray; to err, wander from the truth”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers- (“to flow”). Doublet of arrant.
Words formed from errant
Phrases with errant
Questions about errant
- What does errant mean?
- Errant means straying from the proper course or standard, or outside established limits.
- What part of speech is errant?
- Errant can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce errant?
- Errant is pronounced /ˈɛɹ(ə)nt/ (UK).
Words near errant in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: errant (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-errant.wav.
Cite this entry: “errant.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/errant. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.