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View synonyms for failure

failure

[ feyl-yer ]

noun

  1. an act or instance of failing fail or proving unsuccessful; lack of success:

    His effort ended in failure.

    The campaign was a failure.

  2. nonperformance of something due, required, or expected:

    a failure to do what one has promised;

    a failure to appear.

  3. a subnormal quantity or quality; an insufficiency:

    the failure of crops.

  4. deterioration or decay, especially of vigor, strength, etc.:

    The failure of her health made retirement necessary.

  5. a condition of being bankrupt by reason of insolvency.
  6. a becoming insolvent or bankrupt:

    the failure of a bank.

  7. a person or thing that proves unsuccessful:

    He is a failure in his career.

    The cake is a failure.



failure

/ ˈfeɪljə /

noun

  1. the act or an instance of failing
  2. a person or thing that is unsuccessful or disappointing

    the evening was a failure

  3. nonperformance of something required or expected

    failure to attend will be punished

  4. cessation of normal operation; breakdown

    a power failure

  5. an insufficiency or shortage

    a crop failure

  6. a decline or loss, as in health or strength
  7. the fact of not reaching the required standard in an examination, test, course, etc
  8. the act or process of becoming bankrupt or the state of being bankrupt


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Other Words From

  • non·failure noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of failure1

First recorded in 1635–45; fail + -ure; replacing failer “a fault, default,” from Anglo-French (noun use of infinitive), for Old French faillir

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Example Sentences

Each of these failures compounded and led to the current US death toll — and local and state governments, as hard as some tried, simply don’t have the resources to fight a pandemic on their own as the federal government flails.

From Vox

As recently as 2017, the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement issued a report outlining continuing failures by the state to police water pollution by coal companies.

I wish I would have gotten that memo or a fax perhaps in the ’90s, but on the other side of it, I don’t even know how many hours, hundreds of hours, of therapy and public failures later.

From Ozy

But, I mean, if I worked at Netflix, I might think, “Well, maybe I will get fired if it’s a big enough failure, if I actually screw up enough.”

The heart can recover from myocarditis, but in rare cases, the condition can damage the heart muscle enough to lead to heart failure.

“I think it is important to say it is too soon to judge success or failure,” said Col. Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

In doing so he exposed the failure of other airlines in the region to see the huge pent-up demand for cheap travel.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement deploring the state GOP for its failure to censure Duke.

In short, we found ways to couch messages of failure or inadequacy.

Failure to bond to their parents was the prominent reason children were being given away.

That which is called nasality is caused by the failure of the tone to reach freely the anterior cavities of the nares.

Marriage is like Mayonnaise sauce, either a great success or an absolute and entire failure.

Joachim, as time showed, never forgave the Emperor for the failure of his cherished plan.

When trusted with anything like the command of a mixed body of troops he proved an utter failure.

He consented to the trial, receiving Planner's solemn promise that, in the event of failure, it should be the last.

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