Mistake Literally Means to Take Wrongly
A mistake is something done incorrectly. The word is built from a Norse verb, and it still means taking the wrong thing.
A mistake is an action or judgement that turns out to be wrong. The construction is transparent: *mis-*, wrongly, plus *take*, borrowed from Old Norse. To mistake one person for another is to take the wrong one, which is the original sense preserved intact.
- Something done wrongly. *A costly mistake.*
- To identify wrongly. *I mistook you for your brother.*
- By mistake — accidentally. *I took the wrong bag by mistake.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | mistake | An honest mistake. |
| Plural | mistakes | Repeated mistakes. |
| Verb | mistake | Do not mistake me. |
| Past | mistook | She mistook the date. |
| Participle | mistaken | A mistaken belief. |
How it is used in a sentence
- I made a mistake in the calculation.Make a mistake, not do a mistake.
- Make no mistake, this will be hard.An emphatic warning.
- He was mistaken for a member of staff.Mistaken for is the passive form.
Mistake, error and slip
- Mistake — a wrong choice or action
- Error — a departure from what is correct, more formal
- Slip — a small accidental lapse
- Blunder — a serious and clumsy mistake
- Oversight — something missed rather than done wrongly
From Old Norse *mistaka*, to take in error, from *mis-*, wrongly, and *taka*, to take. English borrowed *take* itself from the same Norse source, replacing the older *niman*.
Make or do a mistake?
Make. English makes mistakes, decisions and progress, and does homework, jobs and favours.
Mistake or error?
They overlap. Error is more formal and is standard in technical writing; mistake is the everyday word.