cuò

mistake

surname Cuo; wrong; bad; interlocking; complex; to grind; to polish; to alternate; to stagger; to miss; to let slip; to evade; to inlay with gold or silver

metal (钅) + past/worn (昔) = things gone wrong or misaligned

昔 originally depicted layered days piled up, suggesting the past or something worn and uneven. Metal (钅) that has become uneven or misaligned through time evokes the idea of things gone wrong or out of place.

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The pastSemantic
MetalSemantic

Words with 错

大错

dà cuò

blunder

听错

tīng cuò

to mishear

运行时错误

yùn xíng shí cuò wù

run-time error (in computing)

过错

guò cuò

mistake

错配

cuò pèi

to be mismatched

逻辑错误

luó ji cuò wù

logical error

错杂

cuò zá

mixed; jumbled

错乱

cuò luàn

in disorder

错开

cuò kāi

to stagger (times)

错位

cuò wèi

to be wrongly positioned; to be dislocated; to be misplaced

错别字

cuò bié zì

incorrectly written or mispronounced characters

错动

cuò dòng

to move relative to one another

More characters with 钅