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Mistake vs Experience - What's the difference?

mistake | experience |

As nouns the difference between mistake and experience

is that mistake is an error; a blunder while experience is experiment, trial, test.

As a verb mistake

is to understand wrongly, taking one thing for another, or someone for someone else.

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

    experience

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Event(s) of which one is cognizant.
  • (label) An activity which one has performed.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1913, author=
  • , title=Lord Stranleigh Abroad , chapter=4 citation , passage=“I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity. …”}}
  • (label) A collection of events and/or activities from which an individual or group may gather knowledge, opinions, and skills.
  • (label) The knowledge thus gathered.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author= Ed Pilkington
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=6, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= ‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told , passage=In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.}}

    Usage notes

    * Adjectives often applied to "experience": broad, wide, good, bad, great, amazing, horrible, terrible, pleasant, unpleasant, educational, financial, military, commercial, academic, political, industrial, sexual, romantic, religious, mystical, spiritual, psychedelic, scientific, human, magical, intense, deep, humbling, unforgettable, unique, exciting, exhilarating.

    Antonyms

    * inexperience

    Derived terms

    * experiential * experience points * experienced

    Verb

    (experienc)
  • To observe certain events; undergo a certain feeling or process; or perform certain actions that may alter one or contribute to one's knowledge, opinions, or skills.
  • Derived terms

    * experienceable