mistake

Meanings

Verb

  • To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another.
  • To misunderstand (someone).
  • To commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong.
  • To take or choose wrongly.

Noun

  • An error; a blunder.
  • A pitch which was intended to be pitched in a hard-to-hit location, but instead ends up in an easy-to-hit place.

Origin

  • From Middle English mistaken, from Old Norse mistaka; equivalent to mis- + take. Cognate with Icelandic mistaka, Swedish missta (before apocope misstaga). Displaced Middle English misnimen and Middle English misfōn from Old English misfōn (and noun misfeng).
  • The noun, which replaced earlier mistaking, is derived from the verb.

Modern English dictionary

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