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^[1], 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) wālḵaṭaʔ)
• 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 (hu), 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 (fa) (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, experimentación f, probatura y error
• Tagalog: pagsubok (tl) at (tl) pagkakamali, babaso
• Thai: ลองผิดลองถูก (long phit long thuk)
• Vietnamese: phương pháp thử và sai

See also

• empirical
• suck it and see