Did you know?
Errant has a split history. It comes from Anglo-French, a language in which two confusingly similar verbs with identical spellings ("errer") coexisted. One errer meant "to err" and comes from the Latin errare, meaning "to wander" or "to err." The second errer meant "to travel," and traces to the Latin iter, meaning "road" or "journey." Both "errer" homographs contributed to the development of "errant," which not surprisingly has to do with both moving about and being mistaken. A "knight-errant" travels around in search of adventures. Cowboys round up "errant calves." An "errant child" is one who misbehaves. (You might also see "arrant" occasionally - it's a word that originated as an alteration of "errant" and that usually means "extreme" or "shameless.")
Examples of errant in a Sentence
Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 16 Feb. 2025
Last summer, Northmoor was cited by the city for creating a public nuisance because of the errant golf balls, and began looking into ways to address the issue.
—Joseph States, Chicago Tribune, 4 Feb. 2025
The vegetation—fire fuel—will grow back, fire season will keep lengthening into wind season, and the combination of drought and wind will nurse an errant spark.
—Zoë Schlanger, The Atlantic, 18 Jan. 2025
The errant email came as millions of federal employees were presented with an offer to take early retirement last week.
—William Melhado, Sacramento Bee, 6 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for errant
Articles Related to errant
Cite this Entry
“Errant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/errant. Accessed 1 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
errant
adjective
Share