infallibility
Americannoun
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Sometimes infallibleness the quality of being infallible, or of being absolutely trustworthy.
He believed in the infallibility of his leadership.
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Roman Catholic Church. immunity from fallacy or liability to error in expounding matters of faith or morals by virtue of the promise made by Christ to the Church.
papal infallibility.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of infallibility
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Explanation
If you don't make mistakes and you're never wrong, you can claim infallibility. (You're going to have to own up to self-deception, too, because, well, humans make mistakes.) If you're convinced of the infallibility of your sense of direction, you won't worry at all when you're deep in the dark woods at night and your flashlight dies. Maybe you’ll get out of the woods, but human infallibility usually doesn’t last. You may buy into your economics professor's image of infallibility until he comes to class with mismatched socks and toothpaste on his forehead. Infallibility comes from the Latin fallere, "deceive," and with infallibility, you can't be deceived.
Vocabulary lists containing infallibility
1984
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Unit 1, Whole-Class Learning
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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.
Later, recounting his fruitless sessions with his hopeless catechumen, Father Mowbray tells the matriarch how he tried to explain to Mottram the concept of papal infallibility:
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
The arrogant certitude with which he announces his conclusions certainly suggests that he has embraced a posture of infallibility that leaves no room for good-faith disagreement.
From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2025
To his credit, when he was stripped last year of his cloak of infallibility, he looked in the mirror.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2023
Küng, who brought Ratzinger to Tübingen, would later be barred from teaching by his former colleague, after he rejected papal infallibility.
From BBC ● Dec. 31, 2022
They can spot with accuracy, on the wing, small insects, and they will home onto things they like with infallibility and speed.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
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.
