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Mistake vs Fraud - What's the difference?

mistake | fraud |

As nouns the difference between mistake and fraud

is that mistake is an error; a blunder while fraud is any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved and/or unlawful gain.

As verbs the difference between mistake and fraud

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

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

    fraud

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved and/or unlawful gain.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • If success a lover's toil attends, / Few ask, if fraud or force attained his ends.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2006, author=
  • , title=Internal Combustion , chapter=1 citation , passage=But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud , and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.}}
  • The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end.
  • A person who performs any such trick.
  • (obsolete) A trap or snare.
  • * Milton
  • to draw the proud King Ahab into fraud

    Synonyms

    * (criminal) deceit * trickery * hoky-poky * imposture * (person ) faker, fraudster, impostor, cheat(er), trickster

    See also

    * embezzlement * false billing * false advertising * forgery * identity theft * predatory lending * quackery * usury * white-collar crime

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To defraud