blunder

CEFRC1

/ˈblʌn.dəː/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A careless or embarrassing mistake.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A very bad move, usually caused by some tactical oversight.

Examples

  • What was she doing when she made that blunder?

  • He was guilty of a blunder.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
4
Synonyms
3

Also pronounced

  • [ˈblʌ̈n.dɚ] ~ [ˈblʌ̈n.dɹ̩]

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Confusion; bewilderment; trouble; disturbance; clamour.

  2. A clumsy or embarrassing mistake.

verb

Extra meaning

  1. To make a big mistake, especially when it is careless or stupid.

More examples

In context

  • to blunder in preparing a medical prescription

  • blunder a draw

  • blunder a rook

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

His biggest blank was forgetting the client's name during the presentation.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Inherited from Middle English blundren, blondren (verb) and blunder, blonder (“disturbance, strife”), from the verb; partly from Middle English blondren, a frequentative form of Middle English blonden, blanden ("to mix; mix up"; corresponding to blend + -er); and partly from Middle English blundren, a frequentative form of Middle English blunden (“to stagger; stumble”), from Old Norse blunda (“to shut the eyes; doze”). Cognates include Norwegian blunda (“to shut the eyes; doze”), dialectal Swedish blundra (“to act blindly or rashly”), Danish blunde (“to blink”) or blunde (“to take a nap”), Icelandic blunda (“to nap; doze”). Related to English blind.