fallibility

[ fal-uh-bil-i-tee ]

noun

1. liability to be deceived or mistaken:

   Many leaders fail to grasp that admissions of fallibility and uncertainty are actually signs of strength.

2. liability to be inaccurate or false, or to fall short of expectations:

   Banks are hoping to get a new card system up and running before the fallibility of the old one becomes public.

Word History and Origins

Origin of fallibility¹

fall(ible) ( def ) + -ibility ( def )

Example Sentences

As a scientist, I can tell you their methods often are flawed and are easily subject to manipulation, making them highly fallible representations of reality.

From Quartz

Is a critique of church and of the broader fallibility of organized religion forthcoming?

From The Daily Beast

But a little fallibility to seize on to would go a long way.

From The Daily Beast

Yet when it comes to the most lethal of all consumer products, suddenly Congress becomes super-indulgent of industry fallibility.

From The Daily Beast

The furor over the 47 percent remarks, the two debate losses, and much else--these aren't signs of his misjudgment or fallibility.

From The Daily Beast

An air of impotence in a president—a perception of fallibility in a time of crisis—can be political death.

From The Daily Beast

There is nothing that people generally abhor so much as a confession of fallibility.

From Project Gutenberg

But, among the well-established truths of which I never doubt, the fallibility of my own brain stands first.

From Project Gutenberg

While denying the infallibility of the writers of the Bible the author is not unconscious of his own fallibility.

From Project Gutenberg

The fallibility of all conclusions of such a sort, from such a circumstance, is too obvious to require instances.

From Project Gutenberg

We have the testimony of all history to prove the extreme fallibility of conscience.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• frailty