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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
Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 17 Apr. 2025
There is no one cause for errant federal payments, and fraud and improper payments are not synonyms.
—Kevin R. Kosar, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 21 Mar. 2025
The notion of an errant line emitted from disabled bodies, intentionally or unintentionally, is inextricable from the modern origins of graphic inscription and other graphic methods in the nineteenth century.
—Mara Mills, Artforum, 1 Apr. 2025
Rozier missed a jumper and reverse layup and threw an errant alley-oop to Ware in his four scoreless minutes.
—Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 30 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for errant
Cite this Entry
“Errant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/errant. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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errant
adjective
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