fault line
Americannoun
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fault lines
plural
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.
The devastating Long Beach earthquake of 1933, magnitude 6.4, occurred along this fault line, tearing through a 15-mile corridor that included Long Beach and Compton.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 2026
The row that followed exposed the real fault line that's coming to the surface this summer: not whether to cut carbon or adapt to the heat – but how much to spend on each.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
Playing a childless, vain, pitch-perfect vision of Los Angeles’ wickedness in “Maps to the Stars,” Julianne Moore mothered so hard she almost separated California right down the San Andreas fault line.
From Salon ● May 10, 2026
He astutely flags “medical gatekeeping” as an emerging fault line.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 8, 2026
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.
