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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
Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 26 July 2025
Advertisement Virginia's death also mirrors that of Happy's father from the first movie, which was caused by an errant hockey slapshot and resulted in young Happy going to live with his grandma.
—Megan McCluskey, Time, 25 July 2025
In Fail Safe, Moscow is about to be destroyed by errant U.S. bombers when the Soviet premier tells the U.S. president (played by Henry Fonda) that no one is to blame for what is obviously an electronic error.
—Tom Nichols, The Atlantic, 10 July 2025
Republicans are ignoring the truth that no one is spared tax increases with their plan to retaliate for an errant tax with another errant tax.
—John Tamny, Forbes.com, 16 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for errant
Cite this Entry
“Errant.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/errant. Accessed 2 Aug. 2025.
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errant
adjective
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