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general::
noun ADJ. fundamental, glaring, grave, great, major, monumental, serious The report contained some glaring errors. | fatal He made the fatal error of borrowing more than he could pay back. | minor, small | embarrassing, unfortunate | past The ability to learn from past errors is vital in business. | common | grammatical, spelling, typing | factual | tactical The Kenyan athlete made a tactical error in starting too fast. | administrative, clerical | human, pilot The plane crash was caused by human error, not mechanical failure. VERB + ERROR commit, make He had committed a grave error in letting them see the document. She made several serious errors during the race. | contain The document contained a lot of typing errors. | detect, discover, find, spot I found several factual errors in the report. | point out The error was pointed out to her by one of her colleagues. | realize I only realized my error when it was too late. | avoid She has avoided the common error of writing too much. | correct, rectify Glasses can correct most errors in your vision. | compound The paper accidentally printed the victim's address, then compounded their error by printing her name the next day. ERROR + VERB arise (from sth), occur errors arising from inadequate information ERROR + NOUN detection | correction | message An error message comes up when I try to open the program. PREP. in ~ The machine had been switched off in error (= by mistake). | ~ in He checked his letter for errors in spelling. He realized his error in not attending the funeral. | ~ of The speech contained many errors of fact. PHRASES a comedy of errors His attempts to arrange a party ended up as a comedy of errors. | an error of judgement The minister had made an amazing error of judgement. | a margin of error The margin of error for a racing driver is tiny.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
4
general::
error
verbs
make an error
• We made too many errors, and that cost us the game.
commit an error
formal (= make an error, especially a serious one )
• He knew he had committed a grave error of judgement.
have/contain an error
• If the data contains errors, the results will be wrong.
find/spot/notice an error
• His accountant spotted several errors in his tax return.
realize your error
• By the time she realized her error, it was too late.
correct an error
( also rectify an error formal )
• We will rectify the error as soon as possible.
avoid errors
• He resolved to learn from his mistakes and avoid similar errors in the future.
compound an error
(= make it worse )
• He refused to listen to our advice, which compounded the error.
an error arises/occurs
formal (= happens )
• If an error occurs, you will have two more chances to re-enter your password.
ADJECTIVES/NOUN + error
a common error
• a common error which students often make when writing essays
a serious/bad error
• The police made a serious error, which resulted in a young man’s death.
a small/minor error
• The letter contained some minor spelling errors.
a glaring error
(= very bad and very noticeable )
• There is a glaring error on page 10, where his date of death is given as 2053, not 1003.
a huge/monumental error
(= very serious )
• It was a monumental error to attack from the north.
a grave error
(= extremely serious, with serious results )
• He has committed a grave error.
a fatal error
(= extremely serious, so that you are certain to fail )
• Telling your staff they are not important is a fatal error.
an unfortunate error
• An unfortunate error resulted in confidential information being released to the press.
a grammatical/spelling/typing error
• You lose marks if your paper contains spelling errors.
a clerical error
• The applications forms were sent to the wrong addresses due to a clerical error.
a factual error
(= which includes a fact that is wrong )
• The article contains many factual errors.
a tactical error
(= one that may cause a plan to fail )
• Both parties have made tactical errors in the run-up to the election.
a random error
(= one that is not like others or part of a pattern )
• This may seem like a random error, but in fact it is repeated once in every 5,000 samples.
human error
(= errors made by people )
• Automatic checks reduce the danger of human error.
computer error
• An on-board computer error meant that the plane’s systems shut down for a few vital seconds.
pilot/driver error
• Investigators believe the crash was caused by pilot error.
phrases
a margin of error
(= the degree to which a calculation might be wrong )
• We have to allow for a small margin of error in the calculations.
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