<B>erotology, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> erotic literature and art; erotica. </DL>
<A NAME="erotomania">
<B>erotomania, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>excessive sexual desire. <DD><B> 2. </B>an exaggerated passion for another person. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Psychoanalysis.) the delusion of being greatly loved. </DL>
<A NAME="erotomaniac">
<B>erotomaniac, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who suffers from erotomania. </DL>
<A NAME="erp">
<B>ERP</B> (no periods) or <B>E.R.P.,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan). <DD><B> 2. </B>early receptor potential (an extremely rapid electrical change recorded in the eye after exposure to light). <BR> <I>Ex. The ERP may well stimulate the much larger late receptor potential that eventually reaches the optic nerve (Science News).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="err">
<B>err, </B>intransitive verb.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>to be wrong; be mistaken or incorrect; blunder. <BR> <I>Ex. to err in an opinion or belief.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>(Figurative.) to do wrong; sin. <BR> <I>Ex. To err is human; to forgive, divine.</I> (SYN) trespass. <DD><B> 3. </B>to go wrong; fail; miss. <BR> <I>Ex. Everyone errs at some time or other. The Arrows ... err not from their aim (Robert Southey).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="errancy">
<B>errancy, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the tendency to do wrong; waywardness. <BR> <I>Ex. Frank's errancy consisted mostly of pranks (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="errand">
<B>errand, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a trip to do something, especially a short trip to get or do something or deliver a message for someone else. <BR> <I>Ex. She has gone on an errand to the store for her mother.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>what one is sent to do. <BR> <I>Ex. She did ten errands in one trip.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>the purpose or object of a trip. <BR> <I>Ex. an errand to take her father his lunch.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="errandboy">
<B>errand boy,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a boy who does errands. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Informal.) a person who acts under instructions and not on his own initiative. <BR> <I>Ex. In matters of importance, the Foreign Secretary is the Premier's errand boy.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="errant">
<B>errant, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>traveling in search of adventure; wandering; roving. <BR> <I>Ex. He was an errant knight seeking adventures.</I> (SYN) wayfaring. <DD><B> 2. </B>straying from the proper course or place; astray. <BR> <I>Ex. errant sheep.</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>wrong; mistaken; incorrect. <DD><B> 4. </B>(Obsolete.) arrant. adv. <B>errantly.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="errantry">
<B>errantry, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ries.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>conduct or action like that of a knight-errant. <DD><B> 2. </B>the condition of being errant. </DL>
<A NAME="errarehumanumest">
<B>errare humanum est,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Latin.) to err is human. </DL>
<A NAME="errata">
<B>errata, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>the plural of <B>erratum.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>errors and corrections in printing listed and inserted in a book; corrigenda. <BR> <I>Ex. He sought a list of errata at the back (New Yorker).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="erratic">
<B>erratic, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>not steady; uncertain; irregular. <BR> <I>Ex. An erratic clock is not dependable. An erratic mind jumps from one idea to another.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>queer; odd. <BR> <I>Ex. erratic ideas, erratic behavior.</I> (SYN) eccentric. <DD><B> 3. </B>having no certain course; wandering. <BR> <I>Ex. an erratic star or planet.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Medicine.) moving from point to point; changeable. <BR> <I>Ex. erratic rheumatic pains.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>(Geology.) having to do with boulders, blocks, or masses of rock that have been transported from their original site to an unusual location as by glacial action. <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a wanderer. <DD><B> 2. </B>an eccentric person. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Geology.) an erratic block or boulder. <BR> <I>Ex. a glacial erratic ... scratched and smoothly abraded on one face by ice action (Raymond Cecil Moore).</I> adv. <B>erratically.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="erraticism">
<B>erraticism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> an erratic quality or tendency. </DL>
<A NAME="erratum">
<B>erratum, </B>noun, pl. <B>-ta.</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an error in writing or printing. <BR> <I>Ex. His early papers are paralyzingly beautiful, but there are many errata (Robert Oppenheimer).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="errhine">
<B>errhine, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a medicine causing or tending to cause nasal discharges and sneezing, especially so as to clear the nasal passages. </DL>
<A NAME="erring">
<B>erring, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> going astray; in error; wrong; sinning. <BR> <I>Ex. an erring child, erring faiths.</I> adv. <B>erringly.</B> </DL>
<B>erroneous, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>containing error; mistaken; incorrect; wrong. <BR> <I>Ex. Years ago many people held the erroneous belief that the earth is flat.</I> (SYN) false. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Archaic.) misguided. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Obsolete.) wandering. adv. <B>erroneously.</B> noun <B>erroneousness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="error">
<B>error, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>something done that is wrong; something that is not as it ought to be; mistake. <BR> <I>Ex. I failed my test because of errors in spelling. There is an error in the date of his birth.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the condition of being wrong, mistaken, or incorrect. <BR> <I>Ex. You are in error; your answer is wrong. All men are liable to error (John Locke).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>wrongdoing; sin. <BR> <I>Ex. Into the second [tabernacle] went the high priest ... not without blood which he offered ... for the errors of the people (Hebrews 9:7).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Baseball.) a faulty play in catching or throwing that permits a batter who should have been put out to reach base or allows a runner to advance. <DD><B> 5. </B>(Bowling.) <B>=break </B>(1) (n. def. 15). <DD><B> 6. </B>(Mathematics.) the difference between the observed or approximate amount and the correct amount. <DD><B> 7. </B>(Archaic.) the action of wandering or roving. <BR> <I>Ex. The damsel's headlong error thro' the wood (Tennyson).</I> adj. <B>errorless.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="errorinprinciple">
<B>error in principle,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Bookkeeping.) an error in placing an entry, especially in an incorrect account. </DL>
<A NAME="errorist">
<B>errorist, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a person who encourages and propagates error. <BR> <I>Ex. It is one thing to refuse joint prayer to heretics and persistent errorists; it is not quite the same thing to refuse joint prayer to the victims ... of heretics and errorists (Martin H. Franzmann).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="errorsignal">
<B>error signal,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (in a servosystem) a signal, usually in the form of a voltage, indicating the amount of error between the controlling and controlled mechanisms. The error signal is used to operate a servo device. </DL>
<A NAME="ersatz">
<B>ersatz, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a substitute or imitation, especially something inferior. <BR> <I>Ex. The coffee ... will be ... tempered with a judicious mixture of ersatz (Observer).</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> substitute. <BR> <I>Ex. ersatz leather, ersatz coffee.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="erse">
<B>Erse, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>the Celtic language of the Scottish Highlanders; Scottish Gaelic. <DD><B> 2. </B>the Celtic language of Ireland; Irish Gaelic. <DD><I>adj. </I> of or in either of these languages. </DL>
<A NAME="erst">
<B>erst, </B>adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD> (Archaic.) <DD><B> 1. </B>before the present time. <DD><B> 2. </B>long ago. <DD><B> 3. </B>a little while ago. </DL>
<A NAME="erstwhile">
<B>erstwhile, </B>adjective, adverb.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> former; past. <BR> <I>Ex. an erstwhile companion. Our erstwhile foe returns to the fold of the freedom-loving nations of the world as a friend and ally (New York Times).</I> <DD><I>adv. </I> (Archaic.) in time past; formerly. </DL>
<A NAME="ertebolle">
<B>Ertebolle, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> belonging to or denoting a late Mesolithic culture based on the Maglemosian culture, represented by huge kitchen middens found in Denmark. </DL>
<A NAME="erts">
<B>ERTS, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> Earth Resources Technology Satellite (a United States artificial satellite for studying earth resources, renamed <I>Landsat</I> in 1975). <BR> <I>Ex. The observations made aboard ERTS will be applied to agriculture, cartography, geology, geography, hydrology, hydrography, and oceanography (Science News).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="erubescence">
<B>erubescence, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a redness of the skin or other surface; blush. </DL>
<B>erudite, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having much knowledge; scholarly; learned. <BR> <I>Ex. an erudite teacher, an erudite book.</I> adv. <B>eruditely.</B> noun <B>eruditeness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="eruditical">
<B>eruditical, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> characterized by erudition. </DL>
<A NAME="erudition">
<B>erudition, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> scholarship; learning. <BR> <I>Ex. The professor's erudition came from long years of study. It is packed with historical and legal erudition and characterized by hard thinking (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="eruditional">
<B>eruditional, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or having to do with erudition. </DL>
<A NAME="erumpent">
<B>erumpent, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>bursting forth. <DD><B> 2. </B>(Botany.) prominent, as if bursting through the epidermis. </DL>
