trial and error

trial and error

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

trial and error (usually uncountable, plural trials and errors)

1. The process of finding a solution to a problem by trying many possible solutions and learning from mistakes until success is attained.

   Navigating by trial and error may get you there eventually, but using a map is faster.

   • 2018 October 9, A. A. Dowd, “The Star and Director of La La Land Reunite for First Man’s Spectacular Trip to the Moon”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 16 June 2020:

     Trial and error was a big part of the process: "We need to fail down here so we don't fail up there," [Neil] Armstrong insists, though even some of the mistakes and malfunctions at ground level cause devastating casualties.

Translations

solution by learning from mistakes

Arabic: التَّجْرِبَة وَالْخَطَأ‎ (at-tajriba(t) wālḵaṭaʾ) Catalan: prova i error, assaig i error, tempteig (ca) m, tanteig (ca) m Chinese: Mandarin: 嘗試錯誤／尝试错误 (chángshì cuòwù) Dutch: trial-and-error (nl) m Finnish: yritys ja erehdys French: tâtonnement (fr) German: trial and error (de), Versuch und Irrtum Hebrew: נִסּוּי וּטְעִיָּה‎ (he) (nisúy ute'iyá) Hungarian: próbálgatás, próbálkozás (hu), kísérletezés (hu) Italian: prove ed errori, tentativi ed errori Japanese: 試行錯誤 (ja) (しこうさくご, shikō sakugo) Norwegian: Bokmål: prøving og feiling Nynorsk: prøving og feiling Persian: آزمون و خطا‎ (âzmun-o-xatâ), سعی و خطا‎ (sa'y-o-xatâ) Polish: metoda prób i błędów f Portuguese: tentativa e erro Russian: ме́тод проб и оши́бок m (métod prob i ošíbok), ме́тод ты́ка (ru) (métod týka) (coll.) Spanish: ensayo y error, tanteo (es) m Tagalog: pagsubok (tl) at (tl) pagkakamali, babaso Vietnamese: phương pháp thử và sai

See also

• empirical
• suck it and see