slip of the tongue
7
3.7
- noun
- /slɪp əv ðə tʌŋ/
- Informal
- He quickly corrected himself after realizing he had made a slip of the tongue during his speech.
Loading YouTube…
Watch on YouTubeBut you've serendipitously disproven your statement with a little slip of the tongue.
- But you've serendipitously disproven your statement with a little slip of the tongue.
- And but this humongous thing, it was a slip of the tongue, the smirk, the smirk.
Examples
-
Sorry for my co-commentator's slip of the tongue.
-
Recently, I attended a symposium characterized by a proliferation of slips of the tongue.
Fiction book (2001) -
All because of a slip of the tongue to someone with a very big mouth.
Fiction book (2000) -
I believe it was just a slip of the tongue.
Blog text (23) -
The only interesting thing that comes out of them is when the coach has a slip of the tongue.
Blog text (19) -
Phil is as surprised as she is by his slip of the tongue.
Fiction book (1993) -
I only found out by an accidental slip of the tongue that one political friend of mine was a Republican.
Blog text (14) -
It was just a slip of the tongue!
-
It was a slip of the tongue.
-
Everybody in politics makes mistakes and slips of the tongue once in a while.
Blog text (1)
Synonyms
58
1.6
A small mistake made by accident or carelessness
47
7.7
A remark or action made by accident that is embarrassing
42
5.3
A small wrong action that causes embarrassment or harm to people's trust
34
6.1
A careless mistake that causes problems or embarrassment
15
3.7
A small careless mistake you make by accident
5
7.7
An embarrassing mistake made when someone is careless or nervous
4
7.7
A small unintentional mistake when speaking, writing, or performing an action
2
4.7
Saying a word in the wrong way
1
8.9
A speech mistake when people swap the first sounds of two words to make a funny phrase
1
8.2
A small playful mistake that is not serious
1
6.5
A small mistake that causes embarrassment or trouble
Antonyms
How Serious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'slip' (a minor accidental mistake) combined with 'tongue' (the speech organ) yields a directly compositional meaning: a spoken mistake. This is a common English construction (noun of noun) with cross‑linguistic equivalents, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will very likely infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Slip of the tongue comes from the image of the tongue slipping while you speak, like a small mistake that makes you say the wrong word. That's why it means 'an accidental and minor mistake made while speaking'.