Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

   3. Rendering probable; supporting, or giving ground for,
      belief, but not demonstrating; as, probable evidence;
      probable presumption. --Blackstone.

   {Probable cause} (Law), a reasonable ground of presumption
      that a charge is, or my be, well founded.

   {Probable error} (of an observation, or of the mean of a
      number), that within which, taken positively and
      negatively, there is an even chance that the real error
      shall lie. Thus, if 3[sec] is the probable error in a
      given case, the chances that the real error is greater
      than 3[sec] are equal to the chances that it is less. The
      probable error is computed from the observations made, and
      is used to express their degree of accuracy.

Error \Er"ror\, n. [OF. error, errur, F. erreur, L. error, fr.
   errare to err. See {Err}.]
   1. A wandering; a roving or irregular course. [Obs.]

            The rest of his journey, his error by sea. --B.
                                                  Jonson.

   2. A wandering or deviation from the right course or
      standard; irregularity; mistake; inaccuracy; something
      made wrong or left wrong; as, an error in writing or in
      printing; a clerical error.

   3. A departing or deviation from the truth; falsity; false
      notion; wrong opinion; mistake; misapprehension.

            H? judgment was often in error, though his candor
            remained unimpaired.                  --Bancroft.

   4. A moral offense; violation of duty; a sin or
      transgression; iniquity; fault. --Ps. xix. 12.

   5. (Math.) The difference between the approximate result and
      the true result; -- used particularly in the rule of
      double position.

   6. (Mensuration)
      (a) The difference between an observed value and the true
          value of a quantity.
      (b) The difference between the observed value of a
          quantity and that which is taken or computed to be the
          true value; -- sometimes called {residual error}.

   7. (Law.) A mistake in the proceedings of a court of record
      in matters of law or of fact.

   8. (Baseball) A fault of a player of the side in the field
      which results in failure to put out a player on the other
      side, or gives him an unearned base.

   {Law of error}, or {Law of frequency of error} (Mensuration),
      the law which expresses the relation between the magnitude
      of an error and the frequency with which that error will
      be committed in making a large number of careful
      measurements of a quantity.

   {Probable error}. (Mensuration) See under {Probable}.

   {Writ of error} (Law), an original writ, which lies after
      judgment in an action at law, in a court of record, to
      correct some alleged error in the proceedings, or in the
      judgment of the court. --Bouvier. Burrill.

   Syn: Mistake; fault; blunder; failure; fallacy; delusion;
        hallucination; sin. See {Blunder}.