human error

American  

[hyoo-muhn er-er] / ˈhyu mən ˈɛr ər /

noun

plural

human errors

1. a mistake made by a human worker or the propensity of humans to make such mistakes, as opposed to the failure of mechanical or electronic systems or devices.

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Other Word Forms

• human-error adjective

Example Sentences

When Brown and his team examined the report, they found that Georgia’s election board had already looked into its allegations, dismissing many altogether, and concluding that others came down to human error, not criminal wrongdoing.

From Salon • Apr. 14, 2026

One explanation for someone else’s information appearing on your tax return is simple human error.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 1, 2026

“This was a release packaging issue caused by human error, not a security breach. We’re rolling out measures to prevent this from happening again,” the spokesman said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 1, 2026

It has said that quality control measures, which usually remove such responses, were not applied due to human error.

From BBC • Mar. 26, 2026

The hospital makes every effort to monitor all aspects of our behavior, but there’s still room for human error.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman