mistake
/mɪˈsteɪk/UK[mɪˈsteɪk]
mistake verb: to understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
Verb
mistake (third-person singular simple present mistakes, present participle mistaking, simple past mistook, past participle mistaken)
- To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
- Sorry, I mistook you for my brother. You look very similar.
- Don't mistake my kindness for weakness.
- To misunderstand (someone).
- Miſtake me not, my Lord, ’tis not my meaning / To raze one Title of your Honour out.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
- […] at last she so evidently demonstrated her Affection to him to be much stronger than what she bore her own Son, that it was impossible to mistake her any longer.1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 6, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume I, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book III, page 194
- To commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong.
- Impoſe me to what penance your inuention / Can lay vpon my ſinne, yet ſinn’d I not / But in miſtaking.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- No gentleman thinks it is safe or prudent to send a servant with a message, without repeating it more than once, and endeavouring to put it into terms brought down to the capacity of the bearer; yet, after all this care, it is frequent for servants to mistake, and sometimes occasion...1720, Jonathan Swift, “Letter to a Young Clergyman” in The Works of Jonathan Swift, London: Charles Elliot, 1784, Volume 10, pp. 6-7
- To take or choose wrongly.
- The better act of purposes mistook / Is to mistake again; though indirect, / Yet indirection thereby grows direct,c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- The Spear with erring Haste mistook its way,
But plung’d in Eniopeus’ Bosom lay.1716, Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, London: Bernard Lintott, Volume 2, Book 8, lines 151-152, p. 252
Noun
mistake (plural mistakes)
- An error.
- There were too many mistakes in the test that, unfortunately, made you fail.
- He always made mistakes on purpose.
- Synonyms:
- aberration, bloomer, blooper, blunder, boner, boo-boo, break, clanger, cock-up, disadventure
- A pitch which was intended to be pitched in a hard-to-hit location, but instead ends up in an easy-to-hit place.
mistake meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
mistake in Hindi
- to take one thing for another
- ग़लत समझना ġalat samajhnā
- ''(obsolete in English)'' to commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong
- ग़लत करना ġalat karnā
- error — see also error
- ग़लती ġaltī, भूल bhūl, ग़लत फ़हमी ġalat fahmī, चूक cūk, ख़ता xatā, खता khatā
mistake in Tamil
- error — see also error
- பிழை piḻai
mistake in Marathi
- error — see also error
- चूक cūk
mistake in Urdu
- to take one thing for another
- غلط سمجھنا ġalat samajhnā
- ''(obsolete in English)'' to commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong
- غلط کرنا ġalat karnā
- error — see also error
- غَلَط ġalat, غَلَطی ġalatī, غَلَط فَہْمی ġalat fahmī, بُھول bhūl, خَطا xatā
More languagesFewer languages
- mistake in Bengali
- ভুল bhul
- mistake in Telugu
- పొరపడు porapaḍu, పొరబడు porabaḍu, పొరపాటు porapāṭu
- mistake in Malayalam
- തെറ്റുക teṟṟuka, തെറ്റ് teṟṟŭ, പിശക് piśakŭ
- mistake in Kannada
- ತಪ್ಪು tappu
- mistake in Punjabi
- خطا xat̤ā, ਖ਼ਤਾ xatā, ਦੋਸ਼ doś
- mistake in Gujarati
- ભૂલ bhūl
- mistake in Odia
- ଭୁଲ bhula
- mistake in Sanskrit
- अशुद्धि aśuddhi, त्रुटि truṭi
- mistake in Sinhala
- වරදක් waradak, වැරදීම wæradīma
- mistake in Assamese
- ভুল bhul
- mistake in Nepali
- गल्ती galtī
- mistake in Pashto
- تېروتنه terwatə́na, غلط ǧalát
- mistake in Tagalog
- mali, kamalian
- mistake in Arabic
- أَسَاء اَلْفَهْم ʔasāʔ al-fahm, أَخْطَأَ ʔaḵṭaʔa, خَطَأ ḵaṭaʔ, غَلْطَة ḡalṭa
- mistake in Malay
- salah faham, kesilapan
- mistake in Indonesian
- salah paham, kesalahan, kekeliruan
- mistake in Thai
- ข้อผิดพลาด kɔ̂ɔ-pìt-plâat, ความผิดพลาด kwaam-pìt-plâat
- mistake in Vietnamese
- nhầm lẫn, lỗi
- mistake in Myanmar
- အမှား a.hma:
Examples of mistake in a sentence
- Besides, you mistake; the night is warm, and you look so handsome in your gown."1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter XVI, in Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC...
- There is also a chancellor, — no, I mistake, — a chandler and green-grocer, with his hands full of warts; […]1857, T[héodore] Robertson, “[Charles Saville: […]] Chapter XXV”, in Synthèse de la langue anglaise (Charles Saville) : Texte anglais avec...
- He, that would write exactly, muſt avoid a Barbarous Pronunciation, and conſider for facility, or thorow miſtake, many words are not ſounded after the beſt dialect.1687, Chriſtopher Cooper, “Chap. XIX: Of Barbarous Speaking”, in The Engliſh Teacher, London: John Richardſon, for the Author, pages 77-78...
- The statement also recognised that Eta’s “mistakes or mistaken decisions” had led to the deaths of people who had nothing to do with the conflict, both in the Basque country and beyond.2018 April 20, Sam Jones, “'We are truly sorry': Eta apologises for four decades of deadly violence”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from...
Synonyms of mistake
26 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of mistake
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | mistakes |
| present participle | mistaking |
| past | mistook |
| past participle | mistaken |
| Noun | |
| plural | mistakes |
Origin of mistake
From Middle English mistaken, from Old Norse mistaka (“to take in error, to miscarry”); equivalent to mis- + take. Cognate with Icelandic mistaka (“to mistake”), Swedish missta (“to mistake”) (before apocope misstaga). The noun, which replaced earlier mistaking, is derived from the verb. Compare Swedish misstag (“mistake”, noun), Faroese mistak (“mitake”, noun), Icelandic mistak (“mistake”, noun).
Words formed from mistake
Phrases with mistake
Words that rhyme with mistake
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- flake
- slake
- stake
- wake
- sheikh
- strake
- betake
- mosaic
- blake
- fake
- jake
- opaque
- forsake
- lake
- raik
- retake
- sake
- claik
- hake
- partake
- quake
- Spirit Lake
- steak
- ache
- remake
- spake
- tea break
- wrake
- ake
- alphamosaic
- ashake
- Choctaw Lake
- crake
- Deer Lake
- demake
- eastern green drake
- glass snake
- laik
- moonquake
- Mud Lake
- nake
- overtake
- parliament cake
- prison break
- radiopaque
- rattlesnake
- reshake
- sodaic
Questions about mistake
- What does mistake mean?
- Mistake means to understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
- What is mistake in Hindi?
- Mistake in Hindi is ग़लत समझना (ġalat samajhnā), ग़लत करना (ġalat karnā), ग़लती (ġaltī). See Mistake meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use mistake in a sentence?
- Besides, you mistake; the night is warm, and you look so handsome in your gown."
- What part of speech is mistake?
- Mistake can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce mistake?
- Mistake is pronounced /mɪˈsteɪk/.
- What is the past tense of mistake?
- The past tense of mistake is mistook.
Words near mistake in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mistake (page history and authors); خطا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); गल्ती (Nepali) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-mistake.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mistake.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mistake. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.