What's the difference between blunder and mistake?

Blunder


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To make a gross error or mistake; as, to blunder in writing or preparing a medical prescription.
  • (v. i.) To move in an awkward, clumsy manner; to flounder and stumble.
  • (v. t.) To cause to blunder.
  • (v. t.) To do or treat in a blundering manner; to confuse.
  • (n.) Confusion; disturbance.
  • (n.) A gross error or mistake, resulting from carelessness, stupidity, or culpable ignorance.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The score should have been tied at 2-2 and the natural German retort that one of Geoff Hurst's goals in the 1966 World Cup was imaginary hardly makes the blunder of officials more palatable in Bloemfontein.
  • (2) The catalogue of blunders produced an angry response from congressmen in both parties who questioned the competence of Pierson, who was herself brought in to clean up the elite unit after earlier scandals in which drunken officers were found passed out during a presidential trip to Amsterdam and visiting prostitutes in Colombia.
  • (3) But it is not clear whether that will be enough to save McChrystal's job after what is the latest of a series of political blunders.
  • (4) Anthony King is professor of government at Essex University and co-author with Ivor Crewe of The Blunders of Our Governments, to be published next week
  • (5) From millions of BBC words, blunders and scandals are relatively few.
  • (6) That should mean, among other changes from Monday’s win at Hull , that Danny Welbeck returns up front even if Olivier Giroud relocated the net after a couple of months blundering about in the dark.
  • (7) But after David de Gea's blunder allowed Phil Bardsley's 119th-minute shot to slip in, Javier Hernández grabbed a lifeline with a strike seconds later to take the tie into the shootout.
  • (8) Blunders by hospital staff which leave newborn babies brain-damaged in the first few days of their lives are set to cost the NHS more than £235m, official figures reveal.
  • (9) A horrendous blunder by Mertesacker presents the ball to Aluko, who goes around Fabianksi.
  • (10) Results indicated an effect of sex identification; the male blunderer was derogated most by male subjects (n = 34) and the female most by female subjects (n = 34).
  • (11) The Obama administration on Monday approved Shell’s plan to resume drilling for oil and gas in the treacherous and fragile waters off the coast of Alaska , three years after the Anglo-Dutch oil giant was forced to suspend operations following a series of potentially dangerous blunders.
  • (12) They've conceded only one goal due to a goalie blunder (against admittedly limited opposition) and not lost.
  • (13) "In a post-Fukushima environment where nuclear planning is being halted in Germany and Japan it seems bizarre that the (UK) government is blundering ahead with disposing of nuclear waste in the most absurdly inappropriate place," she said.
  • (14) The plot of Emma turns on Frank Churchill's "blunder" in mentioning the likelihood of Mr Perry, the local apothecary, "setting up his carriage".
  • (15) A brief inquest a year later did not expose the hospital's blunder.
  • (16) The sport’s global governing body has admitted that Joubert blundered by awarding the Wallabies the last-gasp penalty that Bernard Foley kicked to seize a 35-34 victory at Twickenham on Sunday, robbing Scotland of a place in the World Cup semi-finals.
  • (17) Inevitably the commentators (and so far in my researches, they were all women) pondered on Lawson's motivation, and whether this decision was a style blunder, a "betrayal of her own brand", or a defiant and admirable insistence on privacy for her body.
  • (18) It's hard to watch these executions and not realise that these blunders are bound to happen,” he said.
  • (19) In a front-page comment piece, Aluf Benn, the editor-in-chief of Haaretz, wrote: "Instead of hushing up the blunder, [gag orders] merely shine a spotlight on it.
  • (20) He’s not in power yet, so he still gets to blunder around lobbing out daft policies willy-nilly in the hope that one of them will scan.

Mistake


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make or form amiss; to spoil in making.
  • (v. t.) To take or choose wrongly.
  • (v. t.) To take in a wrong sense; to misunderstand misapprehend, or misconceive; as, to mistake a remark; to mistake one's meaning.
  • (v. t.) To substitute in thought or perception; as, to mistake one person for another.
  • (v. t.) To have a wrong idea of in respect of character, qualities, etc.; to misjudge.
  • (v. i.) To err in knowledge, perception, opinion, or judgment; to commit an unintentional error.
  • (n.) An apprehending wrongly; a misconception; a misunderstanding; a fault in opinion or judgment; an unintentional error of conduct.
  • (n.) Misconception, error, which when non-negligent may be ground for rescinding a contract, or for refusing to perform it.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Based upon the analysis of 1015 case records of patients, aged 16-70, with different hip joint pathology types, carried out during 1985-1990, there were revealed mistakes and complications after reconstructive-restorative operations.
  • (2) But to treat a mistake as an automatic disqualification for advancement – even as heinous a mistake as presiding over a botched operation that resulted in the killing of an innocent man – could be depriving organisations, and the country, of leaders who have been tested and will not make the same mistake again.
  • (3) It's a mistake to say Etonians are as they are because of their families.
  • (4) Conservationists have warned that they can affect fish growth and persist in the guts of mussels and fish that mistake them for food.
  • (5) After trading mistakes, Wawrinka got lucky at 30-30, mishitting a service return and fooling Djokovic.
  • (6) Masutha said the parole board had made a mistake when they approved Pistorius for early release, but his intervention has been widely criticised by legal experts.
  • (7) After winning his prize, Malcolm Turnbull must learn from Abbott's mistakes Read more Abbott appointed Warren Mundine to head his hand picked advisory council on Indigenous affairs.
  • (8) BUSH ON IRAQ TONIGHT: Mr President, if I can move on to the question of Iraq, when we last spoke before the Iraq war, I asked you about Saddam Hussein and you said this, and I quote: "He harbours and develops weapons of mass destruction, make no mistake about it."
  • (9) I believe Flower when he promises he would not repeat his mistake.
  • (10) He admitted to "very serious mistakes", highlighting problems with the party's channels of communication.
  • (11) But Wawrinka, who seemed to be flexing his knee a moment ago, is making more mistakes.
  • (12) "Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we've made some mistakes.
  • (13) The most common provoking factor in case of status and series were medication mistakes.
  • (14) The UN already made a mistake, they broke their own rule.
  • (15) Make no mistake about who the chief beneficiaries are.
  • (16) He added that the appearance this week on Libyan television of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi showed it had been a mistake by the Scottish justice minister to release him on compassionate grounds in 2009.
  • (17) Other parents are going to have to look into it, because I’ve made a big mistake moving him.
  • (18) Mistakes in maternity care account for a third of the £1bn a year the NHS has to spend settling medical negligence claims.
  • (19) These figures cast doubt on health secretary Jeremy Hunt's claim that the rise in A&E attendances was due to Labour's "historic mistake" in 2004 to let GPs no longer take responsibility for providing out-of-hours care.
  • (20) We make mistakes, and fall victim to the temptations of pride, and power, and sometimes evil.