mistake
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
mistake
- /mɪˈsteɪk/
- [mɪˈsteɪk] UK, US
- [mɪˈstɛjk] British, Southern, Standard
- [mɪˈsteːk] Canada
- [mɪˈstæɪk] Australia
Rhymes with -eɪk
Where it comes from
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).
verb mistakes · mistaking · mistook · mistaken
- To understand wrongly, taking one thing or person for another. Sorry, I mistook you for my brother. You look very similar.
- To misunderstand (someone). Miſtake me not, my Lord, ’tis not my meaning / To raze one Title of your Honour out.
- 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.
- To take or choose wrongly. The better act of purposes mistook / Is to mistake again; though indirect, / Yet indirection thereby grows direct,
noun mistakes
- An error. There were too many mistakes in the test that, unfortunately, made you fail.
- A pitch which was intended to be pitched in a hard-to-hit location, but instead ends up in an easy-to-hit place.
