Example sentences
wǒ我suàn算cuò错le了。
I calculated wrong.
zǒu走cuò错lù路le了。
We went the wrong way.
The story behind the character
错
错 is 金 (metal) plus 昔, which gives the sound. Xu Shen wrote 錯, 金涂也: to coat a surface with gold, gold inlay laid into metal. From gold being laid onto something you get "interlocking," as in 交错, and from things getting crossed you get "wrong." The character for mistake spent its early life as a goldsmith's verb.