gaffe

noun

ˈgaf 

1

: a social or diplomatic blunder

committed an embarrassing gaffe when he mispronounced her name

2

: a noticeable mistake

Kwan did not fall today, as she had in Friday's short program, a gaffe that left her in fourth place.

—Christopher Clarey

Synonyms

• blunder
• mistake
• offence
• indiscretion
• error
• gaff

Examples of gaffe in a Sentence

He realized that he had committed an awful gaffe when he mispronounced her name.

committed a huge gaffe when she started drinking from the finger bowl

Recent Examples on the Web

For their part, Administration officials scrambled to walk back the gaffe. —Ruth Marcus, New Yorker, 9 Oct. 2025

To his credit, Skinner rebounded nicely from the gaffe against the Flames. —Daniel Nugent-Bowman, New York Times, 9 Oct. 2025

However, once the defense returned to steady action, the New England offense was consistently set up with strong field position due to special teams and offensive gaffes. —Mike Kaye september 28, Charlotte Observer, 28 Sep. 2025

From Mitchell’s two gaffes to the Colts only playing 10 men on defense on Atwell’s TD, Indianapolis lost the game as much as the Rams won it. —Adam Grosbard, Oc Register, 28 Sep. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, probably a sense development of gaffe gaff entry 1

First Known Use

1909, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for gaffe

• calf
• chaff
• gaff
• graff
• graph
• haff
• half
• laugh
• raff
• staff
• staph
• autograph

Kids Definition

gaffe

noun

ˈgaf 

: a noticeable mistake especially of manners