false alarm; accidental alarm
Refers to an alarm that is triggered without a real threat, such as a fire alarm set off by cooking smoke or a security alarm caused by a pet.
Everyone evacuated because of a false alarm from the smoke detector.
If false alarms occur frequently, responses to real emergencies will be delayed.
Compound of 誤 (go, 'mistake; error') and 警報 (keihō, 'alarm; warning'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the word follows a common pattern for technical terms.