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

• familiarity
• faux pas
• gaff
• impropriety
• indiscretion
• solecism

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

Some conservative commentators tried to maintain the vice presidential candidates’ spirit of civility and downplay the focus on Walz’s gaffe. —Koh Ewe, TIME, 2 Oct. 2024

When faced with owning up to his most recent gaffe, Walz was a deer in the headlights. —Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAY, 2 Oct. 2024

After a gaffe in responding to a question at a tech conference about gender discrimination, Nadella went out of his way to apologize, drawing attention to his mistake and publicly meeting with women in tech groups to learn more. —Michael Morris, Fortune, 30 Sep. 2024

Voters can expect to hear a lot from Republicans about her many early gaffes and garble. —Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 21 July 2024

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

Kids Definition

gaffe

noun

ˈgaf 

: a noticeable mistake especially of manners