fault line
Americannoun
noun
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Also called: fault plane. geology the surface of a fault fracture along which the rocks have been displaced
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a potentially disruptive division or area of contention
Europe remains the main fault line in the Tory Party
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fault line
First recorded in 1865–70
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.
In Moerdijk, that dilemma is no longer abstract; it's immediate, and it is set to reshape the lives of Jaco, Andrea, Jacques and everyone living on the fault line of the green transition.
From BBC • Apr. 12, 2026
He astutely flags “medical gatekeeping” as an emerging fault line.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 8, 2026
“The deeper fault line here is not trade flows. It is capital,” wrote Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management, in a Sunday note.
From MarketWatch • Jan. 19, 2026
He cited safety concerns—the plant sits on a fault line.
From Barron's • Nov. 18, 2025
Seeing her so changed made me feel as if I stood on a fault line and any moment my whole life might crack apart.
From "Hope Springs" by Jaime Berry
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.
