Clumsy vs Mistake - What's the difference?
clumsy | mistake |
awkward, lacking coordination, not graceful, not dextrous
Not elegant or well-planned, lacking tact or subtlety
awkward or inefficient in use or construction, difficult to handle or manage especially because of shape
A person.
An error; a blunder.
* 1877 , Henry Heth, quoting , in "Causes of the Defeat of Gen. Lee's Army at the Battle of GettysburgOpinions of Leading Confederate Soldiers.", Southern Historical Society Papers (1877), editor Rev. J. WM. Jones [http://books.google.com/books?id=iDIFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA292&dq=lee+%22mistakes+were+made%22&hl=en&ei=fchaTbu4L8L98AaVs4n-DQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=lee%20%22mistakes%20were%20made%22&f=false]
(baseball) A pitch which was intended to be pitched in a hard to hit location, but instead ends up in an easy to hit place
To understand wrongly, taking one thing for another, or someone for someone else.
* Shakespeare
* Johnson
To commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong.
* Jonathan Swift
(obsolete, rare) To take or choose wrongly.
As nouns the difference between clumsy and mistake
is that clumsy is a person while mistake is an error; a blunder.As an adjective clumsy
is awkward, lacking coordination, not graceful, not dextrous.As a verb mistake is
to understand wrongly, taking one thing for another, or someone for someone else.clumsy
English
Adjective
(er)- He's very clumsy . I wouldn't trust him with carrying the dishes.
- It is a clumsy solution, but it might work for now.
- What a clumsy joke...
Noun
(clumsies)Synonyms
* butterfingers * klutzSee also
* clumsiesAnagrams
* *mistake
English
Noun
(en noun)- After it is all over, as stupid a fellow as I am can see that mistakes' were made. I notice, however, that my ' mistakes are never told me until it is too late.
Synonyms
* See alsoUsage notes
* Usually make a mistake. SeeVerb
- Sorry, I mistook you for my brother. You look very similar.
- My father's purposes have been mistook .
- A man may mistake the love of virtue for the practice of it.
- Servants mistake , and sometimes occasion misunderstanding among friends.
- (Shakespeare)
