misstep

noun

1. A step that is wrong, a false step.

   “On a high ledge, a misstep could be fatal.”

   “[…] burdened as he was, he did not think of length or height or toil. He remembered only to avoid a misstep and to keep his direction.”

2. (figuratively)An error or mistake.

   “His comment was a misstep that could cost him dearly.”

   “Plenty of past seasons’ events could look ill-conceived in the critical eye of Monday-morning quarterbacking, but previously, the show had earned the benefit of the doubt that missteps on the part of supposedly intelligent characters were a plausible lack of in-world foresight.”

verb

1. (intransitive)To step badly or incorrectly.

   “My dance partner misstepped and landed on my toe.”

   “Eckhart also speaks of this happening to a man who has misstepped (vertreten, as I recall); God, then, corrects the mis-swing of the man and brings him back to the Tao or Logos.”

2. (intransitive)To make an error or mistake.

   “I don't want to misstep by offending them.”