Hamartia

Hamartia (Ancient Greek: ἁμαρτία) is a missing the mark, failure, fault, or error. In discussions of tragedy, hamartia has often traditionally been described as a hero's fatal flaw. This usage derives from a misunderstanding of Aristotle in his work Poetics. The word hamartia is rooted in the notion of missing the mark (hamartanein) and covers a broad spectrum that includes ignorant, mistaken, or accidental wrongdoing, as well as deliberate iniquity, error, or sin.