I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a case of mistaken identity (= when people think that someone is a different person, especially with the result that they are accused of something that they did not do )
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The defendant claimed he’d been arrested in a case of mistaken identity.
a false/mistaken impression
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He had the mistaken impression that Julia was married.
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Many people got the false impression she didn’t care.
a fundamental mistake/error
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The government made at least one fundamental mistake when drawing up this legislation.
a mistaken/false belief
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the mistaken belief that cannabis is not an addictive drug
a wrong/false/mistaken assumption
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Both theories are based on a single wrong assumption.
an expensive mistake (= a mistake which results in someone having to spend a lot of money )
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Choosing the wrong builder turned out to be an expensive mistake.
big mistake
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Buying that house was a big mistake .
case of mistaken identity
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The police arrested someone, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity .
classic example/mistake/case etc
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Too many job hunters make the classic mistake of thinking only about what’s in it for them.
fatal mistake/error
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Telling your employees they’re unimportant is a fatal error.
learn from...mistakes (= understand why what you did was wrong )
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You have to learn from your mistakes .
mistaken identity
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The police arrested someone, but it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity .
silly mistakes
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You made a lot of silly mistakes .
spelling mistakes
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an essay full of spelling mistakes
tactical error/mistake/blunder (= a mistake that will harm your plans later )
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
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The directors do, however, make one big mistake .
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That, in retrospect, was a big mistake .
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I don't like to sound judgemental, but it really was a big mistake .
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His big mistake was to brag to one of the fat traders how he had done it.
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Part of her had the feeling that she was making a very big mistake .
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Setting them up with one another proved a big mistake .
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I shall argue that this reasonable conclusion is actually a big mistake , and that loss of vision makes things even worse.
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Ralph is making a big mistake .
costly
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But the pioneer also risks making costly mistakes which its rivals can learn from.
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The record shows a tendency to make a couple of kinds of particularly costly mistakes .
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The price for not doing so was costly mistakes and severe stress.
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To do otherwise could be a costly mistake all round.
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But they made a costly mistake in teaching their language to the hoipolloi.
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Redesigning chips takes time and money; simulations can help avoid costly mistakes .
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After all, if the executives fail in the new location, the employer will have made a costly mistake .
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A good frame-maker can keep you from making costly mistakes , says Gelay, such as putting Plexiglas over charcoal.
expensive
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This could prove an expensive mistake .
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For, as Richard said the wrong choice could prove an expensive mistake .
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Neither of them was competent to do that type of business and they made an expensive mistake .
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Aunt Tossie, ever loving, ever kind, had made an expensive mistake .
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Instructing the wrong engineer can be a horribly expensive mistake .
fatal
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But then, during the monsoon of 1661, she made her fatal mistake .
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It was an expensive, almost financially fatal mistake .
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This may be a fatal mistake .
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I almost made a fatal mistake when she asked me to transfer the call to the Oval Office.
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But then we asked him a bit more about it and he made his fatal mistake .
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Which uncle had told him that was a fatal mistake ?
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However, in the choice of his last collaborator, Henry Philips, he made a fatal mistake .
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The porpoises delight in riding on the bow waves of motor boats, which has frequently proved to be a fatal mistake .
fundamental
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Here again there was a fundamental mistake .
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I believe that would be a fundamental mistake .
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He rarely made fundamental mistakes and never, she suspected, about a man's scientific ability.
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Prepurchase Preparation A fundamental mistake is commonly made in the basic assumptions of ecommerce business models being designed for the Internet.
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I obviously made some fundamental mistakes within the first few days of my move.
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His fundamental mistake was not only to buy all his planes, but to buy them only on borrowed money.
great
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The failure of this objection stems from its confusion of a great mistake with a clear one.
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It was a great mistake my ever letting you into the Throne Room.
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The greatest mistake in this business is to be sure of yourself.
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This was a great mistake , because in 1973 the Arabs did impose an embargo and made it stick.
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The virus had annihilated all those who knew of Rassilon's great mistake .
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They have made a great mistake .
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It is the greatest mistake I have ever made.
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Oh, no, that is a great mistake .
honest
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Rex is as capable of making an honest mistake as he is of lying.
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It had been an honest mistake , though, the paddy wagon men believing he was dead or dying.
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Finally, honest but unreasonable mistakes could arise in situations involving children or mentally subnormal women.
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It had been an honest mistake .
serious
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Less serious mistakes are simply insufficient.
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This proved to be a serious mistake .
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Yet, this is a serious mistake .
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I also learned that it is a serious mistake to equate pentecostals with fundamentalists.
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Getting engaged to marry some one, then breaking it off - that's a serious mistake .
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This would count as a very serious mistake in spoken language interpreting.
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Estall has made a serious mistake that could prove his undoing.
terrible
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Have I made a terrible mistake ?
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I made the terrible mistake of returning home to Cheyenne to practice law.
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Once I drank too much and spent the night with her, which was a terrible mistake .
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I wanted to make up for the terrible mistakes I had made during his childhood and youth.
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It was all a terrible mistake .
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I was afraid that if I appeared too eager, it might dawn on the woman she had made a terrible mistake .
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Frankly, it all looked like a terrible mistake .
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Rcagan had no choice but to withdraw the Marines, and in effect admit a terrible mistake .
■ NOUN
spelling
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The electric chair for those with spelling mistakes .
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I found a spelling mistake in our editorial this morning.
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It must be possible to encourage creative expression and to correct spelling mistakes .
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These five points do not cover all possible errors, but most spelling mistakes fall into one or more of these groups.
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You can also use the spelling checker to identify and correct deliberate spelling mistakes made to speed text entry.
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Beneath the window is a bilingual rubbish bin with a spelling mistake .
■ VERB
admit
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The company has since admitted this was a mistake .
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There appeared to be real individual differences in the managers willingness to admit mistakes and ask for help.
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Mr Irving admitted making mistakes , but said these were made innocently.
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Rcagan had no choice but to withdraw the Marines, and in effect admit a terrible mistake .
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I admit that was a mistake .
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My motto: Be up front and admit mistakes and bad decisions.
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He makes little humorous concessive noises in his throat, to admit his mistake .
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Later, he swore out an affidavit admitting his own mistake and praising the accuracy of the timekeeper.
assume
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It would be a mistake to assume that all participants in the revolt were involved in it for the same reasons.
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Many doctors make the mistake of assuming that poor sleep in the elderly is due to old age.
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She had made the mistake of assuming they would think as she did.
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The final point by way of preface is that it is a mistake to assume that all black people are deprived.
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However, don't make the mistake of assuming that you necessarily need a conventional bass to construct a bassline.
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However, it would be a mistake to assume that the behaviour of insects is based solely on instinct.
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It is commonplace to hear people claiming to learn by their mistakes but that assumes that a mistake is recognized as such.
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His mistake was to assume that the Labour party would provide a more receptive political vehicle for his ideas than the Conservatives.
avoid
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He must avoid that sort of mistake in future.
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The Minnesota government change leaders avoided this mistake .
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Read on to avoid our mistakes !
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How is it possible to believe that a human being can avoid making mistakes ?
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Mr Major avoided these mistakes , at least in their extreme forms.
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Redesigning chips takes time and money; simulations can help avoid costly mistakes .
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It avoided the mistake that is so often made.
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Collaborative learning is especially applicable in situations where it can help a work group avoid remaking old mistakes .
correct
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The result is a hastily produced bill, heavily amended to correct its mistakes .
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Part of the value of strategic planning is that it helps an organization recognize and correct its mistakes .
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If one search misleads it and sets the weights a bit wrong, then later learning efforts can correct the mistake .
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It must be possible to encourage creative expression and to correct spelling mistakes .
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For the rest of the season it's a question of fine-tuning and correcting any minor mistakes .
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Celia corrected the mistakes with a pen.
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The ability of a system to monitor its output and correct for mistakes .
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In September, Joseph requested permission to travel to Washington to correct the mistakes made in the recent settlement.
learn
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We can know that we have done our best and be willing to learn from our mistakes .
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The doctor was quick to learn from his mistakes , and had a certain cavalier courage that served him well.
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As time proceeds they will learn from their mistakes .
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Many felt it was easier to recognize and learn from their mistakes than from their successes.
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So long as we learn something from every mistake we make, time hasn't been wasted.
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You can only hope they learned from their mistakes .
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What is important is to learn by our mistakes soas to avoid future problems.
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Rather than give up, the program developers began to learn from these mistakes .
make
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One of the reasons for following a routine like this is so that you are less likely to make a mistake .
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I made the terrible mistake of returning home to Cheyenne to practice law.
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If they made a mistake on this account then it was the wood's fault, not theirs.
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Whenever I make a mistake she calls me an idiot.
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I don't want to make any mistakes .
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By that rule Mr Raymond made no mistake at all.
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Choose battery powered projects as these enable you to make mistakes without any drastic consequences.
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The Washington Post, quoting unidentified sources, reported Tuesday that Johnson might be willing to admit he made a mistake .
pay
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They illustrate that, at a time when long-term unemployment is spiralling, it does not pay to make mistakes .
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So who pays for the mistake ?
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Surely they can't really want her to pay for that mistake for the rest of her life!
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The borrower, never the bank, pays for its mistakes .
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He and his students pay for this mistake one by one.
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The recall made them pay for that mistake and sent out a terrible message about making an error in local politics.
realize
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By the time they realized their mistake and released Mohiuddin, it was too late.
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The driver later realized his mistake and notified police.
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By 10.00am we realize our mistake in not pressing on all night.
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Prison officials calculated that she would be released this summer, realizing their mistake only this week.
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Almost inevitably Schultz had gone to the wrong church and had let his staff car go before realizing his mistake .
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Too late, she realized her mistake .
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In time, of course, they realized their mistake .
repeat
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The Opposition seem anxious to repeat the mistakes that they made before.
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It might also prevent future weapons scientists from repeating the pioneers' mistakes .
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Brother Edward did not repeat the mistake .
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Funny thing is, he repeated the mistake in Game 4, getting caught in a rundown between second and third base.
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The past does not burden the present - but you learn by it, and do not repeat your mistakes .
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Most of them shouted over the intercom at every repeated mistake .
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This would help ensure the poorer countries did not repeat the environmental mistakes of the northern hemisphere as they pursued economic development.
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It can not repeat that mistake .
think
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Nevertheless it is a mistake to think that the only literary modes which exist are those one period is familiar with.
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But it would be a mistake to think that construction work began and ended in New York.
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It would be a mistake to think of them as exactly tied options.
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Her mistake had been to think that being a part-owner of a property might change him.
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It is a mistake to think that only people with hearing loss have difficulty in hearing at meetings.
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I obviously made a huge mistake in thinking that we could ever learn to tolerate one another.
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It had been a mistake to think anything could change.
try
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They make a huge mistake if they try to take it.
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Indeed it is a mistake to try .
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For this reason it can be a mistake to try to break into advertising while you are too young.
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We'd grown up in television together, learning from our mistakes , trying out new ideas.
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But eventually the pair made the mistake of trying to sell the gems they had claimed were stolen.
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The weekly-paid Greater Glasgow Health Board employees first discovered the bank's mistake when they tried to withdraw money from cash machines.
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He also made the mistake of trying to frighten the miners with the consequence of sticking to existing conditions.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be mistaken
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Anna realised she had been mistaken about Dennis.
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I think you must be mistaken . He could not have obtained a key to your room.
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I thought it was an accident, but I was mistaken .
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He could not be mistaken for the old Magic no matter how hard you squinted.
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I think that this objection is mistaken and that the third principle is a principle of neutrality.
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If the vicar thinks it does he is mistaken .
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It has been strongly argued that the interpretation is mistaken .
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Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible that I may be mistaken .
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The example shows that the objector's neat distinction between adjudicative and legislative authorities is mistaken .
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This greyish film can be mistaken for fungal infection.
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You must be mistaken ...
catalogue of mistakes/crimes/cruelty etc
mistaken belief/idea/impression/view etc
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A thin, friendly man, he often gave the mistaken impression that nothing was too much trouble.
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Cannabis may have few immediate withdrawal effects and this again may give rise to the mistaken belief that it is not addictive.
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People have a mistaken idea about artists.
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Such a deeply mistaken belief can only come from a citizen of a country with a disciplinarian attitude to politics.
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That can lead to the mistaken impression that the principles do not fit businesses involved in services.
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The foregoing paragraphs dispose, it is hoped, of some mistaken ideas as to the state and progress of sexuality in adulthood.
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The most mistaken idea is that you can Xerox people and somehow clone a fully grown adult.
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This can give rise to the mistaken belief that cocaine is not an addictive drug.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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a tiny mistake in their calculations
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All I can say is, I think I've learnt from my mistakes.
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Buying the farm was the biggest mistake of her life.
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Celia corrected the mistakes with a pen.
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Check your work carefully for any spelling mistakes.
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Don't make the mistake of underestimating your opponent.
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I feel that what we did and the way we did it was a mistake .
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If you make a mistake , just cross it out.
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It was a mistake to think that we could go on living on borrowed money.
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My first marriage was a terrible failure. I don't want to make the same mistake again.
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Sampras was playing badly, making a lot of mistakes.
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There's a mistake in the address.
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There are a lot of mistakes in this - I'll print it out again.
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There must be some mistake - I definitely paid the bill last week.
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Your essay is full of mistakes.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Again it was one of those games where defensive mistakes gave the points away.
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By the time they realized their mistake and released Mohiuddin, it was too late.
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History was being catalogued here, the missed opportunities, blunders, and outright mistakes.
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I had made a pretty big mistake in how I handled it.
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It would be a mistake to assume that all participants in the revolt were involved in it for the same reasons.
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My first mistake was dismissing the SE-40.
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She certainly hadn't made a mistake with the booking and she had confirmed it.
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This was a mistake , however, for it developed that the Math Teacher was not at all keen about psychiatry.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
big
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Most important, they ignored Uncle Sam. Big mistake .
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Promises, but no action. Big mistake .
easily
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The resemblance is so close that a human can easily mistake the new song for the sound of a trimphone.
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He said they are difficult to find because most are in isolated locations and are easily mistaken for natural springs.
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With × 12 the haze is much more pronounced, and an unwary observer could easily mistake it for a comet.
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Even when labels are seemingly clear, they may be easily mistaken .
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A stranger could easily mistake the scene for a sports day or a prize-giving ceremony.
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Indeed, at first glance it could be easily mistaken for Venus.
much
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But unless I am much mistaken , the ingestion of strange materials really is proliferating.
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Unless she was much mistaken in that young man, pure chance played very little part in his proceedings.
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She was soon left in no doubt at all, however, that she was very much mistaken .
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Joan's meeting with her Edward will be, unless I am much mistaken , joy indeed!
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But if either of them imagines they can force my hand, they much mistake the matter!
often
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The convention most often mistaken for logic is explicitness, which, he shows, is not the same thing at all.
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Though in his early 50s, he was often mistaken for being in his 60s.
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She is, however, only two years old but is often mistaken as being older.
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It seeks to function with a machine-like efficiency, which is often mistaken for true effectiveness.
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But because it's so authentic people often mistake him for a real policeman.
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Motorists often mistake them for photo radar, which detects speeders, Johnson said.
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But he earned this appreciation with his charm, which was often mistaken for ability.
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Similarly, the effects of alcohol abuse are often mistaken for depression, again because the physical and mental symptoms are similar.
quite
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Or perhaps he was quite mistaken , and what his nature called for was both.
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It is, for example, quite mistaken to believe that all farmers are hostile towards environmentalism.
sadly
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The grunts out in the jungle thought we were always spiffy and clean, but they were sadly mistaken .
■ NOUN
belief
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The last fifty years of work in Al suggests that this may be a mistaken belief .
case
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No doubt they are frequently mistaken in all cases .
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The judgment we know to be mistaken , the case it supports too drily utilitarian.
make
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A man should be passionate, make mistakes if he has to, get out of line.
view
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Finally, these decisions give support to a current mistaken view of the Constitution and the constitutional function of this Court.
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But this is a mistaken and shortsighted view .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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To her embarrassment, she mistook the date of the elections.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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After the furore over the schoolgirl rape victim, he risks having a controversial but respectable viewpoint mistaken for insensitivity.
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Anyway, in these vague expectations I was mistaken.
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If Father van Exem thought that the Archbishop would readily agree, he was mistaken.
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If Holt thinks that this proposal would remove an arbitrary boundary line between adults and children, then he is mistaken.
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She thought his Catholicism, the emotion he mistook for faith, was a pity.
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Since their directives are binding even when mistaken, they do then make a difference.
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This turn also begins with Anderson mistaking the topic of conversation.