downfall
Americannoun
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a sudden loss of position, health, or reputation
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a fall of rain, snow, etc, esp a sudden heavy one
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another word for deadfall
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of downfall
Explanation
A downfall is a sudden drop in status or strength. You might be winning at Monopoly until your opponents decide to team up against you, which leads to your downfall. Poor political decisions can result in the downfall of a government or party, and an economic depression can lead to the downfall of businesses and banks. A more literal, but less common, kind of downfall is when rain or snow falls down to the ground: "The downfall of snow will make the roads slippery tonight." The "decline in strength" meaning has been in use since the 14th century.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
And there was an added layer of disappointment that Tuchel and England's players contributed so much to their own downfall with such a passive strategy against Argentina that led to defeat.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
In adapting the premise for TV, series creator Nick Antosca dilutes the movies’ naked menace by pouring reasonable doubt into both Max’s profile and that of the Bowdens, the married lawyers behind his downfall.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
The verdict marked the latest chapter in the downfall of Nygard, the Finnish-born son of a baker who built the women’s fashion empire Nygard International from scratch in 1967 and led a hard-partying lifestyle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
In Gdansk, she also met Poland's ex-president Lech Walesa, who led the 1980s Solidarity movement that provoked the downfall of the Communist regime in Warsaw.
From Barron's ● Jun. 26, 2026
In many countries it was a capital offense for anyone but the official astrologer to read the portents in the skies: a good way to overthrow a regime was to predict its downfall.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Whether any of these downfalls will result in a re-examination of how men treat women writ large looks less likely.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 2026
But one of the downfalls certainly has been how divisive some of the language is.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024
The history of Silicon Valley is full of big bets and abrupt downfalls, but rarely has anyone traded his reputation for seemingly so little reward.
From New York Times ● Apr. 23, 2024
Preventing heavy rainfall tuning into deadly floods requires robust defences to deal with sudden intense downfalls.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2024
He had attained this triumph after many drawbacks and downfalls and against the strongest opponents, and Scotland was overawed by the terror of that well-known name.
From Royal Edinburgh Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets by Reid, George
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
