flawed
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of flawed
Explanation
Things that are flawed are less than perfect. A flawed dinner plate might have a small chip in it, and a flawed English paper includes at least one mistake. Flawed objects have some kind of imperfection — a dent or a blemish. No one's perfect, so everyone is flawed in some way, but when this word describes a person it often means "weak in character."A Shakespearian flawed hero has some flaw or foible that will ultimately be his undoing: in other words, a "fatal flaw." Flawed comes from flaw, originally "a flake of snow," later "a splinter," and finally "an imperfection."
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.
There was still one place where I thought I could count on AI to be as flawed as I am: my bossiness.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
The leader of Catholics in England and Wales, Archbishop Richard Moth, called the proposal "wrong in principle" and "deeply flawed".
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
“This is a devastating blowback to people who have been forced to navigate the fragmented and flawed federal emergency response.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
In a blog post, Amazon called the lawsuit "misguided" and "flawed," and said that regulators "cherry-picked" outdated internal documents.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
They were fragments of the same vase, but the destruction of all five meant that every vase was flawed.
From "A Single Shard" by Linda Sue Park
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.
