Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Error?

\Er"ror\, n. [OF. error, errur, F. erreur, L. error, fr. errare to err. See {Err}.] 1. A wandering; a roving or irregular course. [Obs.] The rest of his journey, his error by sea. --B. Jonson. 2. A wandering or deviation from the right course or standard; irregularity; mistake; inaccuracy; something made wrong or left wrong; as, an error in writing or in printing; a clerical error. 3. A departing or deviation from the truth; falsity; false notion; wrong opinion; mistake; misapprehension. H? judgment was often in error, though his candor remained unimpaired. --Bancroft. 4. A moral offense; violation of duty; a sin or transgression; iniquity; fault. --Ps. xix. 12. 5. (Math.) The difference between the approximate result and the true result; -- used particularly in the rule of double position. 6. (Mensuration) (a) The difference between an observed value and the true value of a quantity. (b) The difference between the observed value of a quantity and that which is taken or computed to be the true value; -- sometimes called {residual error}. 7. (Law.) A mistake in the proceedings of a court of record in matters of law or of fact. 8. (Baseball) A fault of a player of the side in the field which results in failure to put out a player on the other side, or gives him an unearned base. {Law of error}, or {Law of frequency of error} (Mensuration), the law which expresses the relation between the magnitude of an error and the frequency with which that error will be committed in making a large number of careful measurements of a quantity. {Probable error}. (Mensuration) See under {Probable}. {Writ of error} (Law), an original writ, which lies after judgment in an action at law, in a court of record, to correct some alleged error in the proceedings, or in the judgment of the court. --Bouvier. Burrill. Syn: Mistake; fault; blunder; failure; fallacy; delusion; hallucination; sin. See {Blunder}.