failure

American  

[fayl-yer] / ˈfeɪl jər /

noun

• failures
  plural

1. an act or instance of failing 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 British  

/ 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

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonfailure
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• failures
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of failure

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

---

Explanation

If you experience failure, things have not gone the way you'd hoped. I'm sorry to hear that your attempt to turn hay into gold has been a failure. Failure can also mean when something suddenly stops working or when you don't do something that you're expected to. A power failure might create an opportunity for a romantic candlelight dinner. Your failure to pay the electric bill may lead to a lot of romantic candlelight dinners, as long as you at least paid the gas bill. Someone who has no success in life a failure, as is an effort that doesn't work like your failure of a presidential campaign.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

failure failures

Her son-in-law had earlier told AFP that Flores was suffering from a "prolapsed" heart, a condition that, in rare, severe cases, can cause heart failure.

From Barron's ● Oct. 15, 2026

“The difference between success and failure rests on who is running the show,” he said in an oral history recorded by the Computer History Museum.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

In fact, the only campaigns in which Milan did not reach the final were after their quarter-final second leg was abandoned because of floodlight failure while trailing Marseille in 1991.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

That specific failure is a bug, but being comfortable with its possibility is a feature.

From Slate ● Oct. 14, 2026

Babulya declared the rain lucky, an answer to the prayer they hadn’t even said yet, but to Anya it felt like a punctuation mark to her utter failure.

From Anya and the Nightingale by Sofiya Pasternack

Reviews of last year’s firestorm revealed critical failures to pre-stage resources, especially in the Palisades where no engines were deployed in advance of the fire’s start, despite warnings of extreme weather.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2026

Cancer also involves abnormal cell behavior, including failures in the mechanisms that ordinarily regulate cell growth and division.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

No enforcement is planned as a result of the trial, which was intended to establish the potential scale of mobile phone use and failures to use child restraints.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

In the early 1990s Sweden endured bank failures, soaring deficits and unemployment, and interest rates that briefly hit 500%.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2026

Hence these local failures or limitations of food production cannot be attributed to competition from bountiful hunting opportunities.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• bankruptcy
• breakdown
• collapse
• decline
• defeat
• deficiency
• deterioration
• failing
• loss
• misstep

---