Word.ws English Dictionary

to err is human; to forgive, divine

to err is human; to forgive, divine is the extended form of to err is human.

Meaning of to err is human

Proverb

to err is human

  1. Everyone makes mistakes.

Origin of to err is human; to forgive, divine

An extended form of earlier to err is human (a calque of Latin errāre hūmānum est) from the poem An Essay on Criticism (written in 1709, published in 1711) by Alexander Pope; see quotation.

Questions about to err is human; to forgive, divine

What is to err is human; to forgive, divine the extended form of?
To err is human; to forgive, divine is the extended form of to err is human.

Words near to err is human; to forgive, divine in the dictionary

  1. to do with
  2. to each his own
  3. to each their own
  4. to emphasize everything is to emphasize nothing
  5. to err is human
  6. to err is human; to forgive, divine
  7. to excess
  8. to go
  9. to God
  10. to hand
  11. to have and to hold

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: to err is human; to forgive, divine (page history and authors); to err is human (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:

Cite this entry: “to err is human; to forgive, divine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/to_err_is_human%3B_to_forgive%2C_divine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.