mistake

mi-STAYK/mɪˈsteɪk/

Pluralmistakes

Verbmistakes, mistaking, mistook, mistaken

6 meanings of mistake

Practice

1
an errornouncountable
An act, decision, or belief that is wrong or made in error.
Hiring him turned out to be an expensive mistake.
The essay was marked down for several small mistakes.
Usagemake a mistake (not ~~incorrect: do a mistake~~); by mistake means without meaning to.
Similarerror, blunder, slip, fault, gaffe
Note
The noun is younger than the verb and was made from it, replacing an earlier noun, mistaking. Christopher Cooper's The English Teacher (1687) already describes words mispronounced "thorow mistake," where today's idiom is by mistake. The word now covers everything from a slip of the pen to a costly decision.
2
confuse withverbtransitive
To wrongly understand one person or thing to be another.
Visitors often mistake the copy for the original painting.
She mistook his silence for agreement.
UsageUsually mistake one person or thing for another; past tense mistook, past participle mistaken.
Similarconfuse, misidentify
Note
It usually follows the pattern mistake X for Y: a stranger for a brother, kindness for weakness, or, in Samuel Johnson's account of Richard Savage, the love of virtue for its practice. Shakespeare could write "purposes have been mistook"; the past participle now is mistaken.
3
be wrongverbobsoleteintransitive
To commit an unintentional error, or to act or think wrongly.
"Bah!" said the Englishwoman: "what knight ever feared cold? Besides, you mistake; the night is warm, and you look so handsome in your gown."
1828, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Pelham
Impoſe me to what penance your inuention / Can lay vpon my ſinne, yet ſinn’d I not / But in miſtaking.
1598, William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”
UsageToday the idea is said as you are mistaken or I made a mistake.
Note
Used with no object at all, the verb simply meant being in error. Late examples come in speech-like formulas: "you mistake" in Bulwer-Lytton's Pelham (1828), and a speaker's quick "no, I mistake" in Théodore Robertson's English course for French readers, as late as the 1850s.

Less common meanings

4
misunderstandverbtransitive
To misunderstand what a person means, intends, or says.
Don't mistake my meaning: I was praising your work, not criticizing it.
Miſtake me not, my Lord, ’tis not my meaning / To raze one Title of your Honour out.
1595, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”
Similarmisread
Note
The error is about what someone means, and older writers made the person the object. Shakespeare's "Mistake me not, my Lord" and Fielding's "impossible to mistake her any longer" in Tom Jones (1749) show it in use.
5
verbobsolete
To take, select, or choose the wrong one of several by error.
The Spear with erring Haste mistook its way, But plung’d in Eniopeus’ Bosom lay.
1716, Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer
The better act of purposes mistook / Is to mistake again; though indirect, / Yet indirection thereby grows direct,
c. 1596, William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”
Note
This is the sense closest to the Norse root behind the mistaken-identity verb: to take, quite literally, the wrong thing. In Alexander Pope's Iliad (1716), a spear "mistook its way" and lodged in Eniopeus instead. Modern English says took the wrong path, and a reader meeting the word in older verse should not read it as misunderstanding.
6
noun
In baseball, a pitch a pitcher meant to place where it would be hard to hit, but which instead crosses the plate where the batter can easily hit it.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of mistake apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Middle English 'mistaken' came from Old Norse 'mistaka' ("to take in error"), which matches 'mis-' plus 'take'. The verb then gave rise to the noun, pushing out the older 'mistaking'.