Blunder

How to spell blunder

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce blunder

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does blunder mean?

1. nounA careless or stupid mistake.
2. verbTo make a careless mistake, or to move clumsily and uncertainly.

Blunder in a sentence

• noun

  A single blunder in the spreadsheet cost the company thousands.

• verb

  He tends to blunder through meetings without reading the agenda.

• noun

  Forgetting to copy the client on the email was an embarrassing blunder.

• verb

  Tired drivers often blunder into the wrong lane at that junction.

Where does blunder come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

Blunder traces back to Middle English blundren, meaning to stumble about or move clumsily, and it is generally connected to an Old Norse source, blunda, which meant to shut the eyes or to doze. The underlying image is of someone moving as if half blind, lurching into things without seeing them. Over time the physical sense of stumbling shifted toward the mental one, so that a blunder became a clumsy mistake made through carelessness rather than a literal trip. The word kept its blunt, thudding sound, which suits the idea of a heavy and obvious error. The spelling is straightforward and phonetic, so the only real trap is the unstressed second syllable, which can tempt writers toward an -or ending instead of -er.

How the word is built

• blunder (from a Norse root meaning to stumble or shut one's eyes)
• -er is not present here; the word is a single root verb/noun