failure
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfeɪ.ljə/
ipa: /ˈfeɪ.ljɚ/
Forms: form: failures
Etymology: From Anglo-Norman failer, from Old French faillir (“to fail”).
Senses: examples: text: For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.
ref: 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:
text: Sarkozy's total will be seen as a personal failure. It is the first time an outgoing president has failed to win a first-round vote in the past 50 years and makes it harder for Sarkozy to regain momentum.
ref: 2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian:
text: What exactly is a "successful failure" in rocket science? A so-called "successful failure" is one where important lessons can be gleaned for future tests and where the risks of harm are low, experts say.
ref: 2023 April 21, Li Zhou, “Why SpaceX doesn't see its rocket explosion as a failure. Experts also viewed the test as a valuable way to see what works — and what doesn't.”, in Vox, retrieved 22 Apr 2023:
glosses: State or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, opposite of success.
examples: text: heart failure
text: congestive heart failure
text: liver failure
text: kidney failure
topics: medicine
pathology
sciences
glosses: State or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, opposite of success.
A condition in which a specified organ does not function well enough to support life.
glosses: Omission to do something, whether or not it was attempted, especially something that ought to have been done.
glosses: An object, person or endeavour in a state of failure, has failed at something or incapable of success.
examples: text: Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […]. Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.
ref: 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
text: But as with individual train failures you have to tackle every one as it arises and assume it will happen again, which it will, if you don't do something about it.
ref: 2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42:
glosses: Termination of the ability of an item to perform its required function; breakdown.
glosses: Bankruptcy.
Synonyms: sense: opposite of success
word: fail
sense: person incapable of success
word: loser
Hyponyms: dam failure
failure to launch
failure to thrive
fiasco
ground failure
market failure
power failure
single-point failure
structural failure
Derived terms: 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
Related terms: word: fail
word: fail-fast
word: fail-safe
word: fail-stop