foible
Americannoun
-
a minor weakness or failing of character; slight flaw or defect.
an all-too-human foible.
- Synonyms:
- peculiarity, eccentricity, crotchet, quirk, frailty
- Antonyms:
- strength
-
the weaker part of a sword blade, between the middle and the point (opposed to forte).
noun
-
a slight peculiarity or minor weakness; idiosyncrasy
-
the most vulnerable part of a sword's blade, from the middle to the tip Compare forte 1
Synonym Usage
See fault.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of foible
First recorded in 1640–50; from French, obsolete form of faible feeble
Explanation
If you repeat foible out loud enough times, it sounds so funny that you can laugh at it and maybe remember to laugh at the odd and distinctive weaknesses of others — the foible or two or a hundred that we all have. Sometimes a foible helps make a person who they are, even if the foible, or weakness ("feeble" is a close relative), is a little odd. Synonyms for foible in a negative sense are "failing," "shortcoming," and in a more positive sense "quirk," "eccentricity." It can likewise be annoying or endearing. Most people have a foible, or idiosyncrasy, that stands out to others, but interestingly, a person rarely sees his or her own characteristic foible.
Vocabulary lists containing foible
100 SAT Words Beginning with "F"
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The Bluest Eye
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 12
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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.
See Examples For:
It helps fund managers justify their salaries and makes ordinary people feel better because of a foible known as the illusion of control.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
“Nathan for You” was zippy, and loath to waste a minute, especially when it could reveal a charming or dumbfounding human foible.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 15, 2022
Jones happily recites the joke using the other word, and the two men laugh, having been caught in a foible of their profession.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2021
This was practically why “Seinfeld” was created; it seems there’s a “Simpsons” reference for just about every human foible.
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2021
About the middle of that year, 1788, he toned down his severe estimate of the king, to whom he attributed "no foible which will enlist him against the good of his people."
From Thomas Jefferson The Apostle of Americanism by Chinard, Gilbert
Throughout his career, Neill pitted himself against creatures both real and imagined — or, even more often, somewhere in-between — to reveal humanity’s foibles in the face of the freakish and fantastic.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
Like the large so-called moon jar that opens the exhibition, these capacious bowls glazed in eggshell white flaunt their foibles with wobbling edges that give character to otherwise pure forms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Martin Amis, a merciless observer of foibles, puts one writer’s envy of another at the heart of “The Information.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
We share many attributes, among them: optimism, adaptability and the capacity to laugh at life’s foibles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2025
“Chirren got all kinda foibles nowadays. Running around wild, doing all they wanna do.”
From "Root Magic" by Eden Royce
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.
