A 99 year old mistake of the Oxford Dictionary will be corrected after an alert made by a physics lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology.

The physicist Dr. Stephen Hughes found out the wrong definition of "siphon" while writing a paper on how they actually work.

The Oxford English Dictionary has wrongly stated the atmospheric pressure is the force in a siphon when it is actually gravity, since the year 1911.

Siphons are usually used to empty containers such as petrol tanks.

Dr. Hughes said that not even a single dictionary correctly stated gravity being the operative force, after an extensive check on offline and online dictionaries.

He added that he was shocked initially and just stood at one place like a stunned mullet thinking how it could be this way.

He then emailed the editors at Oxford whose revision team said the mistake will be corrected.

According to News.com.au, Margot Charlton, a spokeswoman of the Oxford Dictionary said the definition was written during the year 1911 by "editors who were not scientists".

She said their files suggest that no one has questioned the definition since 1911 and the editors will take account of Dr. Hughes's annotations when the entry is rewritten.