Free from error or incapable of being wrong.
Reach for it when using a specialist absolute term for a doctrine, text, or authority explicitly claimed to contain no error
The course compared traditions that treat the text as inerrant with those that do not.
| everyday | |
|---|---|
| professional | |
| formal |
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| literary |
everyday
Fits when evidence supports correctness without claiming perfection
Careful Accurate can allow minor uncertainty and is safer for ordinary reporting.
professional
authoritative
Fits when a source merits reliance within its field
Careful Authority can be mistaken and does not entail inerrancy.
professional
Fits when a bounded check found no errors in a defined artifact
Careful Error-free is credible only within the scope and method of the check.
formal
Fits when a person or authority is claimed to be incapable of error
Careful Infallible concerns the capacity to err, while inerrant often describes a text's state.
literary
Fits when repeated judgment appears never to miss
Careful Unerring is often rhetorical and may hide the unobserved failures.
inerrant text
The scholar did not assume an inerrant text when comparing the variants.
consider inerrant
Some readers consider the rule inerrant, while the committee treats it as revisable.
claim to be inerrant
No forecasting model should claim to be inerrant.
Keep in mind
Inerrant is an absolute and often doctrinal claim. It should not be applied to empirical systems or people without naming the belief context.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Vealhurl, Southern England accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 Updated
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