comedy of errors
A series of amusing or farcical events involving awkward missteps or other mistakes.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Our vacation was a comedy of errors from start to finish.”
“Between the lost luggage and the wrong hotel booking, our trip turned into a complete comedy of errors.”
“The dinner party became a comedy of errors after the power went out and the host accidentally served the dessert as the main course in the dark.”
“The entire wedding ceremony became a comedy of errors when the rings went missing and the officiant arrived at the wrong venue.”
first recorded 16th c. disputed origin
From *comedy* + *of* + *errors*, the phrase was probably coined by the English playwright William Shakespeare (c. 1564–1616). It appears as the title of his play *The Comedy of Errors*, which was written c. 1594 and published in 1623.
The play concerns two sets of identical twins separated at birth who find themselves in the same city. The ensuing series of mistaken identities presumably provided the necessary errors for the title. The term has since migrated from the stage to describe any situation defined by a sequence of blunders.
Last updated August 10, 2026