errs

Errs is most commonly the third-person singular present tense form of the verb to err, meaning to be mistaken or to deviate from accuracy. In modern English, errs appears in sentences such as, “If he errs, he should correct himself.” As a noun, err is rare in contemporary usage; the plural form errs is even less common and typically appears only in literary or historical contexts. For most purposes, the noun form used today is error, or the phrase a mistake.

In technical and scientific contexts, err is frequently used as shorthand for error. It can denote a measurement error, a residual in a statistical model, or an error value in programming. In code and documentation, developers may name a variable err or a collection errs to store error conditions, messages, or numerical error terms. In logs, you may encounter references to ERR or error messages, depending on the convention adopted by a system or language.

The word derives from the Latin errare, meaning to wander, via the Old French errer. The sense of being mistaken translates into English usage over time, yielding both the verb form and, less commonly, the historical noun. In formal or technical writing, it is generally preferable to use error or mistake rather than err as a noun, while errs is best reserved for the verb form or for shorthand in code and notes.