Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Blunder |
BlunderNoun1. An embarrassing mistake. Verb1. Commit a faux pas or fault. 2. Make an error. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "blunder" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1350. (references) |
Note: Blunder \Blun"der\, intransitive verb [imperfect & past participle. Blundered; Blundering.]. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A blunder is a spectacularly bad decision with detrimental consequences to the party that makes it. The term is often used to refer to military, diplomatic, political, or business decisions.Examples of blunders include:
In chess, it is a very bad move, often given the '?' or even '??' sign. But what is a blunder, also depends on the player, since a lesser move for a club player may be called a blunder if a Grandmaster plays it.
- British policy toward the United States before the American Revolutionary War
- Decision making prior to World War I
- Mussolini's decision to ally with Hitler and subsequently to invade Greece
- The Japanese attack against Pearl Harbor
- U.S. policy during the Vietnam War
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Blunder."
Synonyms: BlunderSynonyms: bloomer (n), blooper (n), boner (n), boo-boo (n), botch (n), bungle (n), flub (n), foul-up (n), fuckup (n), boob (v), goof (v), sin (v), slip up (v), stumble (v), trip up (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Absurdity | Blunder, muddle, bull; Irishism, Hibernicism; slipslop; anticlimax, bathos; sophism. |
Error | Mistake; miss, fault, blunder, quiproquo, cross purposes, oversight, misprint, erratum, corrigendum, slip, blot, flaw, loose thread; trip, stumble; (failure); botchery; (want of skill); slip of the tongue, slip of the lip, Freudian slip; slip of the pen; lapsus linguae, clerical error; bull; (absurdity); haplography. |
Err; be -in error; Adjective:, be mistaken; Verb: be deceived; (duped); mistake, receive a false impression, deceive oneself; fall into error, lie under error, labor under an error; Noun: be in the wrong, blunder; misapprehend, misconceive, misunderstand, misreckon, miscount, miscalculate; (misjudge). | |
Failure | Miss, miss one's aim, miss the mark, miss one's footing, miss stays; slip, trip, stumble; make a slip; n. blunder; make a mess of, make a botch of; bitch it, miscarry, abort, go up like a rocket and come down like the stick, come down in flames, get shot down, reckon without one's host; get the wrong pig by the tail, get the wrong sow by the ear; (blunder, mismanage). |
Blunder; (mistake); fault, omission, miss, oversight, slip, trip, stumble, claudication, footfall; false step, wrong step; faux pas, b_vue, faute, lurch; botchery; (want of skill); scrape, mess, fiasco, breakdown; flunk. | |
Imbecility Folly | Weak headed, addle headed, puzzle headed, blunder headed, muddle headed, muddy headed, pig headed, beetle headed, buffle headed, chuckle headed, mutton headed, maggoty headed, grossheaded; beef headed, fat witted, fat-headed. |
Unskillfulness | Verb: be unskillful; Adjective: not see an inch beyond one's nose; blunder, bungle, boggle, fumble, botch, bitch, flounder, stumble, trip; hobble; put one's foot in it; make a mess of, make hash of, make sad work of; overshoot the mark. |
Blunder; (mistake); etourderie gaucherie, act of folly, balourdise; botch, botchery; bad job, sad work. | |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Blunder |
| English words defined with "blunder": Blundered, Blundering, bull ♦ catch ♦ Equivocal chord ♦ fluff ♦ howler ♦ misstep ♦ No mistake ♦ spectacle, stumble ♦ The Golden Bull, To blunder on, To find fault, To the last, trip, trip up ♦ Writ of error. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "blunder": Abdael, Agnus-castus ♦ Glass Slipper ♦ INFALAPSARIAN ♦ Misnomers ♦ Northern Wagoner ♦ Palestine Soup, Porcus ♦ Worse than a Crime. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Blunder" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Swedish (bloomer, blunder, boob, gaffe). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I mean, what are we to believe, that this is a magic xylophone, or something? Ha ha, boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder. (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge) Don't be fooled it isn't thunder, staying put would be a blunder. (Jumanji; writing credit: Greg Taylor) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Blunder Down Under (1963) A Blissful Blunder (1952) Blunder Below (1942) His Prehistoric Blunder (1922) A Pullman Blunder (1918) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Author | Quotation |
Benjamin Disraeli | Youth is a blunder, manhood is a struggle and old age a regret. |
| Grief is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief the blunder of a life. | |
Joseph Addison | An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | This forgetfulness was his great fatal blunder. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | INFALAPSARIAN, n. One who ventures to believe that Adam need not have sinned unless he had a mind to -- in opposition to the Supralapsarians, who hold that that luckless person's fall was decreed from the beginning. Infralapsarians are sometimes called Sublapsarians without material effect upon the importance and lucidity of their views about Adam. Two theologues once, as they wended their way To chapel, engaged in colloquial fray -- An earnest logomachy, bitter as gall, Concerning poor Adam and what made him fall. "'Twas Predestination," cried one -- "for the Lord Decreed he should fall of his own accord." "Not so -- 'twas Free will," the other maintained, "Which led him to choose what the Lord had ordained." So fierce and so fiery grew the debate That nothing but bloodshed their dudgeon could sate; So off flew their cassocks and caps to the ground And, moved by the spirit, their hands went round. Ere either had proved his theology right By winning, or even beginning, the fight, A gray old professor of Latin came by, A staff in his hand and a scowl in his eye, And learning the cause of their quarrel (for still As they clumsily sparred they disputed with skill Of foreordination freedom of will) Cried: "Sirrahs! this reasonless warfare compose: Atwixt ye's no difference worthy of blows. The sects ye belong to -- I'm ready to swear Ye wrongly interpret the names that they bear. You -- Infralapsarian son of a clown! -- Should only contend that Adam slipped down; While you -- you Supralapsarian pup! -- Should nothing aver but that Adam slipped up. It's all the same whether up or down You slip on a peel of banana brown. Even Adam analyzed not his blunder, But thought he had slipped on a peal of thunder! G.J. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Blunder" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 84.75% of the time. "Blunder" is used about 177 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 84.75% | 150 | 25,701 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 9.04% | 16 | 87,710 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 5.65% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.56% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 177 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "blunder": blunder about ♦ blunder against ♦ blunder away ♦ blunder away one's chance ♦ blunder in ♦ blunder into ♦ blunder into a trap ♦ blunder on ♦ blunder one's way along ♦ blunder out ♦ blunder smth. out ♦ blunder upon ♦ blunder upon smth. ♦ egregious blunder ♦ make a blunder ♦ making a blunder ♦ To blunder on. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "blunder": blunder-buss, blunder-head. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
blunder medical | 40 |
blunder | 21 |
blunder broad | 20 |
blunder movie | 13 |
blunder cat | 10 |
marketing blunder | 8 |
resume blunder | 7 |
military blunder | 4 |
international marketing blunder | 3 |
blunder broad eric stanton | 3 |
blunder garden homefront in | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "blunder"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | bëj gafë, proçkë (faux pas), gafë (balk, baulk, bloomer, Boner, faux pas, gaffe, gross fault, howler, slip), gabim trashanik (bloomer, foolish mistake, howler), endem (divagate, drift, gad about, itinerate, muck about, range, roam, traipse, tramp, trapes, vagabondize, wander), eci verbtas. (various references) | |
Arabic | قال شيئا بحماقة, تخبط (flounce, flounder, wallow), خطأ فاضح, أخطأ بفداحة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | развалям (alloy, bitch, break up, change, contaminate, corrupt, deprave, disaffirm, injure, louse up, mangle, mess about, mess around, muddle, murder, mutilate, nip, perish, queer, spoil, uglify, undo, vitiate), грешка (blooper, boss, break, defect, demerit, dereliction, error, fault, inaccuracy, inexactitude, lapse, misdoing, misstep, mistake, muff, slip up, slipping, snafu), вървя слепешката, правя груба грешка. (various references) | |
Chinese | 錯 (cross, error, fault, mistake, uneven, wrong), 大錯 , 大". (various references) | |
Czech | udìlat chybu (lapse, make a mistake, mistake), seknout se (drop a clanger), přehmat (stumble), hrubý omyl. (various references) | |
Dutch | grove taalfout (grammatical blunder). (various references) | |
Farsi | کوکورانه رفتن , سهو (Error, Goof, Inadvertent, Miscue, Oversight, Slip, Wrong), اشتباه کردن (Fumble, Goof, Miscarry, Miscue, Mistake, Saturate, Slip), اشتباه لپی , اشتباه بزرگ , دست پاچه شدن وبهم مخلوطکردن . (various references) | |
Finnish | virhe (aberration, error, fault, mistake, slip), munaus (howler), munata (howler), kömmähdys (bloomer, boner, faux pas), huomaamattomuus (imperceptibility, inattention, oversight), haksahdus. (various references) | |
French | gaffe (bloomer, blooper). (various references) | |
German | tappen (feel, go falteringly, grope, lollop, lollop along, wander), sich blamieren (disgrace oneself, make a fool of oneself), schnitzer (blooper, bobble, Boner, boob, booboo, carver, goof, howler, slip up, solecism), mist bauen (boob), grober Fehler (bloomer), fauxpas (faux pas, gaffe, solecism), einen schnitzer machen (boob), dummer fehler. (various references) | |
Greek | γκάφα (gaffe). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מש'" (error, false step, fault, mistake, oversight, slip up), לש'ות ש'יע" חמור", לפשל (goof, make a hash of it, screw up, slip up), ש'יא" (error, mistake), ש'י'" (error, mistake), שבוש (breakdown, confusion, dislocation, disorder, disruption, error, fault), פשל" (screw up). (various references) | |
Hungarian | baklövés (bad break, balk, blundering, Boner, break, crack, flub-up, goof, howler, slip up, slip-up, stumble, trip), melléfogás (blundering, boner, muff, side dish, slip up, trip), melléfog (to be all abroad, to be beside the mark, to be wide of the mark, to blunder, to bring one's pigs to a pretty market, to bring one's pigs to the wrong market, to miss the cushion, to miss the mark, to pull a boner, wide off the mark). (various references) | |
Indonesian | bersalah (culpable, guilty, offending). (various references) | |
Italian | topica, svista (inadvertence, inadvertency, oversight, slip), sproposito (enormous quantity, malapropism, mistake), granchio (cancer, crab, crayfish), gaffe (faux pas, gaffe), fare un errore, errore grossolano, condurre maldestramente, cantonata (corner, goof), abbaglio. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 傑作 (best work, boner, masterpiece). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | そそう (ancestors, careless mistake, carelessness, dejection, loss of spirit, rat's nest), しっさく (error, slip), しっぱい (failure, mistake), ぶま (clumsiness, stupidity), ふかく (angle of dip, defeat, depression, failure, indiscretion, mistake, negligence), ぬかり (miss, oversight, slip), かしつ (accident, error, humidification, varnish), けっさく (best work, boner, masterpiece), へま (bungle, gaffe), てちがい (mistake). (various references) | |
Manx | shaghrynys (abberation, absence, bewilderment, confusion, deviation, deviousness, error, gaffe, hallucination, maze, mental alienation, quibble, truancy), lutchey (blundering, bungle, loubbering, lout; bungling, slouch, slouching). (various references) | |
Norwegian | bommert. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | underblay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | tropeçar (diddle, flounder, founder, stumble, trip), tolice (applesauce, barney, bosh, bungle, fiddle-de-dee, flapdoodle, folly, foolery, foolishness, guff, gup, howler, ineptitude, ineptness, infelicity, moonshine, mush, nonsense, piffle, rot, silliness, simplicity, tomfoolery, tommy rot, tripe, twaddle, unreason), mancada (mistake, slip-up), grande disparate, falar inadvertidamente, estragar (botch, bungle, deface, deteriorate, dilapidate, disconcert, foul up, impair, injure, mar, mess, muck, muddle, overset, poison, queer, rub, screw up, spoil), erro estúpido, engano (bunco, cheat, chouse, circumvention, cozenage, deceit, deception, delusion, error, fault, feint, fraud, gag, gammon, hoax, imposition, invention, inveracity, mare's-nest, miscalculation, miss, mistake, misunderstanding, overreach, sham, slip, take-in, tripping), andar cegamente. (various references) | |
Romanian | boacãnã (howler), obrãznicie (audacity, brass, break, cheek, coolness, forwardness, gall, impertinence, impudence, insolence, lip, naughtiness, nerve, perkiness, pertness, sauce, trespass, unruliness), greşealã (aberration, blemish, bloomer, defect, drawback, error, failing, fault, flaw, lapse, miscarriage, mistake, rub, shortcoming, sin, slip, trespass, wrong), gafã (atrocity, bloomer, break, howler, infelicity, offence), face gafe, comite o greşealã. (various references) | |
Russian | грубая ошибка (atrocity, bloomer, glaring mistake, gross blunder, gross error). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zabuna (confusion, embarrassment, error, mix up), pogrešiti (be mistaken, err, go wrong, make a mistake, mis-step, slip up), gruba greška. (various references) | |
Spanish | torpeza (awkwardness, bungling, clumsiness, inability, obtuseness, roughness, rustiness), pifiar (mess up), pifia (bloomer), meter la pata (botch it, goof), equivocación (aberration, equivocation, error, inadvertence, inadvertency, lapse, lapsus, misapprehension, misconception, mistake, misunderstanding, oversight), enflautada, disparate (absurdity, applesauce, Folly, piffle), cometer una torpeza, chapucear (botch, botch up, bungle, dabble, fumble, scamp, skimp). (various references) | |
Swedish | misstag (aberration, error, errors, fallacy, lapse, mistake, oversight), groda (frog, howler, irish bull), blunder (bloomer, boob, gaffe). (various references) | |
Thai | เ"ินงุ่มง่าม. (various references) | |
Turkish | tökezlemek (halt, loose one's footing, miss one's footing, snag, stagger, stumble, trip), sendelemek (careen, dodder, falter, halt, lurch, pitch, reel, stagger, stumble, swing, teeter, topple, totter, waver, wobble), pot kırmak (drop a brick, drop a clanger, flub, goof, make a blunder, make a boner, make a faux pas, speak out of turn), pot (atrocity, bloomer, Boner, break, clanger, contretemps, crease, faux pas, gaff, jackpot, kitty, pool, pot, stake), gaf yapmak (disgrace oneself, drop a clanger, flub, goof, make a blunder, make a faux pas), gaf (atrocity, bloomer, Boner, break, bull, clanger, contretemps, faux pas, flub, gaff, gaffe, goof, howler, slip, slip of the tongue, slip up), falso (discord, error, false note, flub), düşünmeden söylemek (blurt out), çam devirmek (disgrace oneself, drop a brick, drop a clanger, make a boner, make a faux pas). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | рухатися навпомацки (feel about), груба помилка, наплутати (hash), зіпсувати (butcher, injure, ravage), збентеження (abashment, agitation, amazement, bewilderment, confusion, dismay, distraction, embarrassment, nonplus, puzzlement, tumult), промахнутися (boss, muff, overshoot), промах (atrocity, boss, muff). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | ngớ ngẩn (anserine, dotty, dumb, muddle-headed, muddy-headed, sap-headed, sappy, sillily, silly), điều sai lầm (falsehood, wrongdoing). (various references) | |
Welsh | dallgeibio, amryfuso (err), amryfusedd (error, oversight). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| French | 1500-Modern | gaffe. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "blunder": blunderbuss, blunderbusses, blundered, blunderer, blunderers, blundering, blunderingly, blunders. (additional references) | |
| |
"Blunder" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bhundri, Bluddeh, bludder, blumer, blunden, Blunderum, blundun, blunger, blynde, brundred, Buldir, Bunder. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "blunder" (pronounced blu"nder) |
| 5 | -l u" n d er | plunder. |
| 4 | -u" n d er | asunder, sunder, thunder, under, wonder. |
| 3 | -n d er | Ender, engender, Alexander, attainder, auslander, Bander, bartender, bender, binder, blander, blender, blinder, blonder, bookbinder, bounder, brander, bystander, calamander, calendar, candor, cinder, cofounder, commander, Condor, contender, coriander, cylinder, defender, extender, Fender, finder, flounder, fonder, founder, gander, gender, gerrymander, grander, grinder, highlander, hinder, islander, kinder, Lander, launder, lavender, lender, mainlander, meander, minder, offender, oleander, pander, pathfinder, Pinder, ponder, pounder, pretender, rejoinder, remainder, reminder, render, responder, rounder, salamander, sander, sender, Sidewinder, slander, slender, sounder, Spender, splendor, squander, Stander, surrender, suspender, tender, tinder, transponder, vendor, viewfinder, wander, weekender, winder, yonder, Zander. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: bundler. | |
| Words within the letters "b-d-e-l-n-r-u" | |
-1 letter: bundle, burden, burled, burned, nurled, rundle, unbred. | |
-2 letters: blend, blued, bluer, lubed, lured, nuder, redub, ruble, ruled, under, unled. | |
-3 letters: bedu, bend, bled, blue, blur, bred, bren, bund, burd, burl, burn, drub, duel, dune, dure, durn, lend, leud, lube, lude, lune, lure, nerd, nude, nurd, nurl, rend, rube, rude, rued, rule, rune, unbe. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-d-e-l-n-r-u" | |
+1 letter: blunders, bundlers, unbridle. | |
+2 letters: blundered, blunderer, endurable, endurably, unbridled, unbridles, unridable. | |
+3 letters: bladdernut, blunderers, blundering, carbuncled, landlubber, nondurable, rebuilding, redoubling, refundable, roundtable, underbelly, unlimbered, unreadable, untroubled. | |
+4 letters: belowground, bladdernuts, blueprinted, blunderbuss, candelabrum, denumerable, denumerably, durableness, landlubbers, nondurables, roundtables, thunderbolt, undesirable, undesirably, undrinkable, unendurable, unendurably, unliberated, unscrambled. | |
+5 letters: battleground, begrudgingly, blunderingly, candelabrums, landlubberly, overbuilding, purblindness, thunderbolts, unaffordable, unbridgeable, uncalibrated, uncelebrated, underbellies, undesirables, unpardonable, unredeemable, unverbalized. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Quotations: Familiar 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Translations: Ancient 15. Derivations 16. Rhymes | 17. Anagrams 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
