VOCABULARY 20 ERROR AND CONFUSION

1. AMISS A. Adjective—wrong; faulty; out of proper order A. Jake’s mother knew that something was amiss when he didn’t come home from school on time. B. Adverb– in a bad, defective, or improper way B. The roller-coaster accident was caused by controls that went amiss.

2. BEWILDERMENT Noun—the state of being puzzled or confused The crowd looked on in bewilderment when the referee called a foul.

3. BLUNDER A. Noun– a foolish or careless mistake A. Buying the worthless car was a blunder that cost Malcolm several thousand dollars. B. Verb– to move in a clumsy way B. Caroline blundered around her room in the dark until she found the lamp.

4. ERRONEOUS Adjective—wrong; mistaken; false There were several erroneous conclusions in the detective’s sloppy report.

5. FALLIBLE Adjective—able to be mistaken, wrong, or in error All human beings are fallible; no one is perfect.

6. FAUX PAS Noun– a minor social error that may cause embarrassment Anna committed a faux pas when she ate her salad with a dinner fork.

7. FLUSTERED Adjective—nervous and confused After he missed an easy shot, the basketball player became flustered and started to make even more mistakes.

8. MISCALCULATION A. Noun—an error in math or in estimation A. A miscalculation in the problem caused Mary to lose several points. B. Noun—a bad judgment B. The producer made a miscalculation about the popularity of the new TV show.

9. MISINTERPRET Verb—to understand incorrectly After Bob misinterpreted the word’s definition, he proceeded to write a faulty sentence.

10. PREDICAMENT Noun– a difficult or unpleasant situation Latoya found herself in a predicament when she wanted to invite two friends who were not speaking to each other to the same party.