Idiom idiom
schoolboy error
Meaning
A fundamental, simple mistake.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“Forgetting to save my work was a total schoolboy error.”
“The team lost the championship because the goalkeeper made a schoolboy error in the final minute.”
“Despite his years of professional experience, the architect committed a schoolboy error by failing to account for the building's structural load.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026