error

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. An act, assertion, or belief that unintentionally deviates from what is correct, right, or true.
2. n. The condition of having incorrect or false knowledge.
3. n. The act or an instance of deviating from an accepted code of behavior.
4. n. A mistake.
5. n. Mathematics The difference between a computed or measured value and a true or theoretically correct value.
6. n. Baseball A defensive fielding or throwing misplay by a player when a play normally should have resulted in an out or prevented an advance by a base runner.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A wandering; a devious and uncertain course.
2. n. A deviation from the truth; a discrepancy between what is thought to be true and what is true; an unintentional positive falsity; a false proposition or mode of thought.
3. n. An inaccuracy due to oversight or accident; something different from what was intended, especially in speaking, writing, or printing: as, a clerical error (which see, below).
4. n. A wrong-doing; a moral fault; a sin, especially one that is not very heinous.
5. n. The difference between the observed or otherwise determined value of a physical quantity and the true value: also called the true error. By the error is often meant the error according to some possible theory. Thus, in physics, the rule is to make the sum of the squares of the errors a minimum—that is, that theory is adopted according to which the sum of the squares of the errors of the observations is represented to be less than according to any other theory. The error of an observation is separated into two parts, the accidental error and the constant error. The accidental error is that part of the total error which would entirely disappear from the mean of an indefinitely large series of observations taken under precisely the same circumstances; the constant error is that error which would still affect such a mean. The law of error is a law connecting the relative magnitudes of errors with their frequency. The law is that the logarithm of the frequency is proportional to the square of the error. This law holds only for the accidental part of the error, and only for certain kinds of observations, and to those only when certain observations affected by abnormal errors have been struck out. The probable error is a magnitude which one half the accidental errors would in the long run exceed; this is a well-established but unfortunate expression. The mean error is the quadratic mean of the errors of observations similar to given observations.
6. n. In law, a mistake in a judicial determination of a court, whether in deciding wrongly on the merits or ruling wrongly on an incidental point, to the prejudice of the rights of a party. It implies, without imputing corruptness, a deviation from or misapprehension of the law, of a nature sufficiently serious to entitle the aggrieved party to carry the case to a court of review.
7. n. Perplexity; anxiety; concern.
8. n. In base-ball, a failure by one of the fielders to put out an opponent when he has the opportunity; a misplay by which a runner secures a base.
9. In law, upon an appeal, to reverse the judgment or other determination of the court below, on account of error in its proceedings.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The state, quality, or condition of being wrong.
2. n. countable A mistake; an accidental wrong action or a false statement not made deliberately.
3. n. computing, countable A failure to complete a task, usually involving a premature termination.
4. n. statistics, countable The difference between a measured or calculated value and a true one.
5. n. baseball, countable A play which is scored as having been made incorrectly.
6. n. uncountable One or more mistakes in a trial that could be grounds for review of the judgement.
7. v. computing To function improperly due to an error, especially accompanied by error message.
8. v. telecommunications To show or contain an error or fault.
9. v. nonstandard To err.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A wandering; a roving or irregular course.
2. n. A wandering or deviation from the right course or standard; irregularity; mistake; inaccuracy; something made wrong or left wrong
3. n. A departing or deviation from the truth; falsity; false notion; wrong opinion; mistake; misapprehension.
4. n. A moral offense; violation of duty; a sin or transgression; iniquity; fault.
5. n. (Math.) The difference between the approximate result and the true result; -- used particularly in the rule of double position.
6. n. The difference between an observed value and the true value of a quantity.
7. n. 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.
8. n. (Law.) A mistake in the proceedings of a court of record in matters of law or of fact.
9. n. (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.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. inadvertent incorrectness
2. n. departure from what is ethically acceptable
3. n. (baseball) a failure of a defensive player to make an out when normal play would have sufficed
4. n. a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention
5. n. (computer science) the occurrence of an incorrect result produced by a computer
6. n. part of a statement that is not correct
7. n. a misconception resulting from incorrect information