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Mistake vs Blame - What's the difference?

mistake | blame |

As verbs the difference between mistake and blame

is that mistake is to understand wrongly, taking one thing for another, or someone for someone else while blame is .

As a noun mistake

is an error; a blunder.

mistake

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • 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]
    • 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.
  • (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

    • Synonyms

    * See also

    Usage notes

    * Usually make a mistake. See

    Verb

  • To understand wrongly, taking one thing for another, or someone for someone else.
    • Sorry, I mistook you for my brother. You look very similar.
  • * Shakespeare
    • My father's purposes have been mistook .
  • * Johnson
    • A man may mistake the love of virtue for the practice of it.
  • To commit an unintentional error; to do or think something wrong.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • Servants mistake , and sometimes occasion misunderstanding among friends.
  • (obsolete, rare) To take or choose wrongly.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * mistakeless

    Related terms

    * mistaken English irregular verbs 1000 English basic words

    blame

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl), from (etyl)

    Noun

    (-)
  • Censure.
    • Blame came from all directions.
  • Culpability for something negative or undesirable.
    • The blame for starting the fire lies with the arsonist.
  • Responsibility for something meriting censure.
    • They accepted the blame , but it was an accident.
    Derived terms
    * put the blame on
    See also
    * fault

    Etymology 2

    (etyl), from (etyl) blasmer, from . Compare (blaspheme)

    Verb

    (blam)
  • To censure (someone or something); to criticize.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.ii:
    • though my loue be not so lewdly bent, / As those ye blame , yet may it nought appease / My raging smart [...].
  • *
    • These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr. Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighboring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces.
  • * 1919 , (Saki), ‘The Oversight’, The Toys of Peace :
    • That was the year that Sir Richard was writing his volume on Domestic Life in Tartary . The critics all blamed it for a lack of concentration.
  • * 2006 , Clive James, North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, p. 106:
    • I covered the serious programmes too, and indeed, right from the start, I spent more time praising than blaming .
  • (obsolete) To bring into disrepute.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.viii:
    • For knighthoods loue, do not so foule a deed, / Ne blame your honour with so shamefull vaunt / Of vile reuenge.
  • To assert or consider that someone is the cause of something negative; to place blame, to attribute responsibility (for something negative or for doing something negative).
    • The arsonist was blamed for the fire.
    Synonyms
    * reproach, take to task, upbraid * (consider that someone is the cause of something negative) hold to account
    Derived terms
    * blamer

    Anagrams

    * English reporting verbs