LaTeX error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item
Inside itemize, enumerate, and description, every piece of text must belong to an \item. LaTeX also raises this message in a few other places where it expected a list entry or a paragraph, such as a \\ right after \begin{center}.
! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.
Try it: this example has the error
Press Fix it in the error box, and it compiles to a PDF. What pdfTeX printed for it:
! LaTeX Error: Something's wrong--perhaps a missing \item.
See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type H <return> for immediate help.
...
l.5 \end{itemize}Ready. Press Compile (or Ctrl/Cmd + Enter).
Common causes
- Text between
\begin{itemize}and the first\item. - An empty list (
\begin{itemize}\end{itemize}). - A
thebibliographyentry missing its\bibitem. - A
\\at the start of acenter,flushleft, or table cell with nothing before it.
How to fix it
- Start the text with
\item. TeXpad offers "Start the list entry with \item". - Remove empty lists, or add at least one
\item. - Replace a leading
\\with\vspaceif you wanted space.