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 of gaffe

• blunder
• mistake
• error
• indiscretion

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

Defense holds strong after first-half gaffes The Trojans ran the ball from heavy formations and used play-action off those looks to incrementally make their way down the field. — Pj Green, Kansas City Star, 20 Sep. 2026

Deep down, Aiken knows that his friend meant no harm by the gaffe. — Kathleen Perricone, Entertainment Weekly, 18 Sep. 2026

But there were also many of the same gaffes that plagued Washington during its miserable 5-12 campaign in 2025. — Brooks Kubena, New York Times, 13 Sep. 2026

There had been an embarrassing episode in Scotland, again on a golf course, in which Harp had made the gaffe of being overly clingy. — Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 22 Aug. 2026

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
• graf
• graff
• graph
• haff
• half
• laugh
• raff
• staff
• staph

Kids Definition

gaffe

noun

ˈgaf 

: a noticeable mistake especially of manners