English edit

Etymology edit

From think +‎ -o, on the model of typo (typographical error).

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /θɪŋkəʊ/
  • Audio (AU):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪŋkəʊ

Noun edit

thinko (plural thinkos)

  1. (slang) A careless mistake made in thinking.
    I must have done quite a thinko, but I don't remember leaving my keys in the refrigerator.
    • 1998, K. G. Binmore, Game Theory and the Social Contract, Volume 2: Just Playing, page 34,
      We need to face the fact that thinkos are likely to be much more important, even though such a source of noise is much harder to model.
    • 2006, Kristen B. Donohue, “Misused Words and Other Witing Gaffes: A Manager's Primer”, in Written Communications that Inform and Influence, Harvard Business School, page 164:
      Spell-checkers can help with simple types such as misspeIIings and repeated words, but they are little defense against the equally common "thinkos," such as the inconvenience/incontinence example above. Your only defense against thinkos is a careful read.
    • 2008, Kurt Wall, Tcl and Tk Programming for the Absolute Beginner[1], page 134:
      I don't know about you, but I don't want to grovel through a bunch of code blocks to track down a typo or thinko.
    • 2009, Geoff Nunberg, Going Nucular: Language, Politics, and Culture in Confrontational Times[2], page 59:
      There are two kinds of linguistic missteps, the typos and the thinkos. Typos are the processing glitches that intercede between a thought and its expression. They can make you look foolish, but they aren't really the signs of an intellectual or ethical deficiency, the way thinkos are.

Synonyms edit

Coordinate terms edit

Verb edit

thinko (third-person singular simple present thinkos, present participle thinkoing, simple past and past participle thinkoed or thinko'd)

  1. (slang, transitive, intransitive) To make a mistake when thinking.

Anagrams edit