fallibility
Americannoun
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liability to be deceived or mistaken.
Many leaders fail to grasp that admissions of fallibility and uncertainty are actually signs of strength.
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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.
Etymology
Origin of fallibility
Explanation
Fallibility is the tendency to be wrong or make mistakes. Your fallibility in guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar means you can't count on getting the number right and winning a prize. Fallibility is a quality that everyone has, since we all make misjudgments from time to time. You might remark on the fallibility of your little brother's plan to row a boat from Connecticut to Florida, especially if there's a hole in the boat and he's not a strong swimmer. The plan, in other words, has too many errors to work well. The Latin root is fallibilis, "liable to err or deceitful."
Vocabulary lists containing fallibility
Grade 9, List 3
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On Liberty
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The Gene
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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.
Recognizing your fallibility and limitations, as Warren Buffett and the late Charlie Munger have said repeatedly, is what makes good investors great.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026
To denote the passage of time and fallibility of memory, Veloso shifted the way he shot the character in each era.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 16, 2026
Regardless of Red Bull's recovery, and McLaren's fallibility, Verstappen says he is "quite surprised" to be going into the last race still in with a chance of the title.
From BBC • Dec. 4, 2025
It’s one that takes the form of three streaming series dedicated to revealing the designers behind the clothes; to stripping off the masks of the monstres sacrés and exposing them in all their human fallibility.
From New York Times • Jun. 19, 2024
Our hope is that by a set of ten simple, straightforward laws, we can avoid the pitfalls of human fallibility.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
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.
