English Explanatory Dictionary

failure

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. State or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, opposite of success.
  2. A condition in which a specified organ does not function well enough to support life.
  3. Omission to do something, whether or not it was attempted, especially something that ought to have been done.
  4. An object, person or endeavour in a state of failure, has failed at something or incapable of success.
  5. Termination of the ability of an item to perform its required function; breakdown.
  6. Bankruptcy.

Pronunciation

/ˈfeɪ.ljə/ /ˈfeɪ.ljəɹ/ En-ca-failure.ogg /ˈfel(ɪ)jə(r)/ /ˈfɛjl(ɪ)jə(r)/

Word forms

failure failures

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman failer, from Old French faillir (“to fail”). Equivalent to fail + -ure.

Synonyms

fail loser

Antonyms

success triumph

Related words

fail fail-fast fail-safe fail-stop

Derived words

acute kidney failure acute renal failure congestive cardiac failure failure drill failure is the best teacher failureless failureproof failure rate failure to prepare is preparing to fail girlfailure government failure mean distance between failure mean time to failure microfailure nonfailure postfailure single point of failure tree failure

Translations

Albanian: dështim Arabic: فَشَل Arabic: إِخْفَاق Armenian: անհաջողություն Armenian: ձախողում Basque: porrot Belarusian: права́л Belarusian: крах Belarusian: няўда́ча Bulgarian: неуспе́х Bulgarian: несполу́ка Catalan: fallida Catalan: fracàs (hispanism) Cherokee: ᎤᏄᎸᎲᏍᎩ Chinese Mandarin: 失敗 /失败 Czech: nezdar Czech: neúspěch Czech: selhání Danish: fiasko Dutch: mislukking Dutch: faling Dutch: fout Esperanto: malsukceso Esperanto: fiasko Estonian: ebaõnnestumine Finnish: epäonnistuminen Finnish: moka Finnish: munaus Finnish: tyriminen Finnish: töppäys Finnish: möhläys Finnish: tunarointi Finnish: kömmähdys French: échec German: Misserfolg German: Ausfall German: Verschlechterung German: Misslingen German: Versagen German: Fehlschlag Greek: αποτυχία Ancient Greek: ἀποτυχία Ancient Greek: ἀστόχημα Ancient Greek: ἀστοχία Hebrew: כישלון \ כִּשָּׁלוֹן Hindi: असफलता Hindi: विफलता Hungarian: kudarc Hungarian: bukás Hungarian: felsülés Hungarian: fiaskó Ido: fiasko Indonesian: gagal Indonesian: kegagalan Irish: meath Irish: cliseadh Italian: fallimento Italian: insuccesso Italian: avaria Italian: fiasco Japanese: 失敗 Kabuverdianu: fadja Kazakh: сәтсіздік Khmer: កំហក Khmer: ចំណាញ់ Khmer: រិត្ត Korean: 실패 Kyrgyz: жол болбоо Kyrgyz: иш ордунан чыкпай калуу Latin: dēliquium Latin: dēfectiō Latvian: neizdošanās Latvian: neveiksme Lithuanian: nepasisekimas Macedonian: неуспех Malay: kegagalan Māori: mūhoretanga Norwegian Bokmål: fiasko Norwegian Bokmål: misære Old English: āteorung, ġeteorung
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