Blunder
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A clumsy or embarrassing mistake.
- 2 an embarrassing mistake wordnet
- 3 A very bad move, usually caused by some tactical oversight.
- 4 Confusion; bewilderment; trouble; disturbance; clamour. obsolete
- 1 To make a big mistake, especially when it is careless or stupid. intransitive
"to blunder in preparing a medical prescription"
- 2 utter impulsively wordnet
- 3 To make a big mistake, especially when it is careless or stupid.; To make a bad move, especially caused by tactical oversight. intransitive
- 4 make one's way clumsily or blindly wordnet
- 5 To make a big mistake, especially when it is careless or stupid.; To lose a piece due to having made a bad move [with the piece lost]. intransitive, transitive
"blunder a rook"
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 commit a faux pas or a fault or make a serious mistake wordnet
- 7 To make a big mistake, especially when it is careless or stupid.; To overlook the possibility of, or end up in, a specified undesirable situation after making a bad move. intransitive, transitive
"blunder a draw"
- 8 To move in an unsteady way. figuratively, intransitive, sometimes
"I was never distinguished for address, and have often even blundered in making my bow."
- 9 To enter a place or become involved in a difficult situation by mistake. intransitive
"He and I had blundered into the middle of a gang fight once and I saw him shank a guy-stuck homeboy in the chest and strolled off cool as you please."
- 10 To do or treat in a blundering manner; to confuse. obsolete, transitive
"He blunders and confounds all these together."
Example
More examples"What was she doing when she made that blunder?"
Etymology
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.
Related phrases
More for "blunder"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.