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verb

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botch - To carry out a task badly or carelessly

Eric botched the assignment that he was asked to do, so his supervisor had to reprimand him.

noun

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mishap - An unexpected mistake or error, often not serious but troublesome.

Despite a few mishaps during rehearsal, the play was a big success.

verb

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flunk - To fail to reach the required standard in an examination, test, or course of study

Ron hid his school test from his mother because he didn't want her to know he had flunked it.

adjective

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inevitable - Certain to happen and impossible to avoid.

After weeks of neglecting his studies, failing the test was inevitable.

noun

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futility - the quality being ineffective, useless, unsuccessful, and achieving nothing.

Elon Musk confronted the common attitude regarding the futility of going to Mars, and is proving them wrong.

noun

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snafu - A confused or chaotic state; a mess

A lack of funding led to the snafu of an incomplete bridge being built across the river.

verb

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backfire - To have the opposite effect of what was intended, usually producing a negative result.

At the company meeting, his attempt to lie backfired, and when the truth came out, he was very embarrassed.

noun

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fluke - Unlikely chance occurrence, especially a surprising piece of luck

Since he was the worst player on his baseball team, Taylor knew the home run he had just hit was a fluke.

adjective

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inadvertent - Not deliberately planned or intended.

He made an inadvertent mistake by sending the email to the wrong person.

noun

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mixup - An error resulting from things being wrongly arranged or identified.

There was a mix-up at the airport, and my luggage went to the wrong city.

noun

See verb

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slip - A small mistake or accident, often due to carelessness.

After he commented about her weight, he apologized for the slip of the tongue that he wished he hadn't said,

adjective

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spurious - False and incorrect

The teacher showed Max that his scientific conclusions were wrong because they were based on spurious facts and logic.