Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - mistake

(mistakes, mistaking, mistook, mistaken) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. If you make a mistake, you do something which you did not intend to do, or which produces a result that you do not want. They made the big mistake of thinking they could seize its border with a relatively small force... I think it’s a serious mistake to confuse books with life... There must be some mistake... He has been arrested by mistake. N-COUNT: oft N of -ing, also by N 2. A mistake is something or part of something which is incorrect or not right. Her mother sighed and rubbed out another mistake in the crossword puzzle. ...spelling mistakes. = error N-COUNT 3. If you mistake one person or thing for another, you wrongly think that they are the other person or thing. I mistook you for Carlos... VERB: V n for n 4. If you mistake something, you fail to recognize or understand it. The government completely mistook the feeling of the country... No one should mistake how serious the issue is. = misjudge VERB: V n, V wh 5. You can say there is no mistaking something when you are emphasizing that you cannot fail to recognize or understand it. There’s no mistaking the eastern flavour of the food... PHRASE: V inflects, PHR n c darkgreen]emphasis