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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
Melissa Locker, Southern Living, 16 Feb. 2026
From there, Chestnut drew a walk, followed by an errant throw to second by the pitcher, advancing both runners into scoring position.
—Tony Catalina, Austin American Statesman, 15 Feb. 2026
It could be mistaken for the latter only because Jokic had thrown so many errant passes over the last two hours already.
—Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 10 Feb. 2026
Because as Bam Adebayo attacked a second-quarter offensive rebound with seemingly nothing but open air space toward the rim, teammate Kel’el Ware had similar thoughts of contesting that same carom of that Davion Mitchell errant attempt.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 9 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for errant
Cite this Entry
“Errant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/errant. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.
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errant
adjective
