错别字 (cuò bié zì) — incorrectly written Chinese characters (wrongly formed or misused homophones)
Definition
A character-level writing error: either mistyped (wrong stroke form) or misused (wrong character for the sound/meaning). Unlike 错误 (any general mistake) or 差错 (a slip or accident), 错别字 is specifically about wrong characters on the page.
noun
incorrectly written Chinese characters (wrongly formed or misused homophones)
Examples
- 错别字。Kǎo shì shí xiě cuò bié zì huì bèi kòu fēn.Writing incorrectly written characters during an exam will lose you points.
- 错别字。Tā fā duǎn xìn shí jīng cháng yǒu cuò bié zì.He often has incorrectly written characters when sending text messages.
- 错别字，。Zhè piān zuò wén de cuò bié zì tài duō le, xū yào chóng xiě.This essay has too many incorrectly written characters; it needs to be rewritten.
Appears in
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