Drop the ball

The answer

ERR

3 letters. See every clue for this answer on the ERR answer page.

Used 143 times across 31 distinct years; most recently in 2026; first recorded in 1953. It appears in 29 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this pilot link to their own answer page.

• FUMBLE (2 uses in xd)
• MESSUP (2 uses in xd)
• BLOWIT (1 uses in xd)
• BOBBLE (1 uses in xd)
• BOTCHUP (1 uses in xd)

Other clues for ERR

Every other clue in this pilot answered by ERR, most used first.

• Mess up - used 508 times, most recently in 2026
• Make a mistake - used 385 times, most recently in 2026
• Go wrong - used 260 times, most recently in 2026
• Slip up - used 238 times, most recently in 2026
• Go astray - used 211 times, most recently in 2026
• Goof up - used 198 times, most recently in 2026
• "To ___ is human" - used 185 times, most recently in 2026
• Screw up - used 165 times, most recently in 2026
• Miscalculate - used 138 times, most recently in 2026
• Blow it - used 115 times, most recently in 2026
• ___ on the side of caution - used 98 times, most recently in 2026
• Do the wrong thing - used 81 times, most recently in 2026

Related clues

Pilot clues of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• In the past - AGO, used 1,064 times
• In the style of - ALA, used 784 times
• Under the weather - ILL, used 536 times
• "___ the season ..." - TIS, used 398 times
• To the ___ degree - NTH, used 389 times
• In the manner of - ALA, used 367 times

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