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# Error.prototype.message

The **`message`** data property of an [`Error`](../Error.mdx) instance is a human-readable description of the error.

## Value

A string corresponding to the value passed to the [`Error`](../Error.mdx) constructor as the first argument.

## Description

This property contains a brief description of the error if one is available or has been set. The `message` property combined with the [`name`](./name.mdx) property is used by the [`Error.prototype.toString()`](./toString.mdx) method to create a string representation of the Error.

By default, the `message` property is an empty string, but this behavior can be overridden for an instance by specifying a message as the first argument to the [`Error`](../Error.mdx) constructor.
