Meaning of error In English

• 0 a mistake:

  • He admitted that he'd made an error.

  • The letter contains a number of typing errors.

  • Human error has been blamed for the air crash.

  • With something as delicate as brain surgery, there is little margin for error (= you must not make mistakes).

  • Not telling the staff before they read the news in the papers was an error of judgment.

• 1 a mistake, esp. in a way that can be discovered as wrong, or the making of such mistakes:

  • [ C ] a spelling/mathematical error

  • [ U ] Investigators said the train crash was caused by human error rather than mechanical failure.

• 2 something done or written by accident that is not correct, not accurate, or does not give the right result:

  • make/introduce an error Can I amend my VAT return online if I've made an error?

  • correct/find an error

  • contain/have errors The text has numerous errors, but none are particularly significant.

  • error in sth An error in accounting led to this figure appearing in the 'profit' column.

  • accounting/administrative/clerical error Due to an administrative error, the payment went to the wrong bank account.

  • a grave/serious error

  • He made an error of judgment when he failed to promote her.

  • If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify us immediately.

• 3 a situation in which something goes wrong in a computer program, or a message that this has happened:

  • give/produce/generate an error The bug generated an error when performing a multi-scale query.

  • a syntax/server/system error