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pass-fail

American  
[pas-fayl, pahs-] / ˈpæsˈfeɪl, ˈpɑs- /

noun

Education.
  1. a system of grading in some educational institutions in which a student simply passes or fails instead of receiving a letter or numerical grade.


Etymology

Origin of pass-fail

First recorded in 1955–60


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:

“Your experience is timed but not in a pass-fail sense,” Nelson says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2023

It ended much of the drama of the tests by scrapping the "pass-fail" model and introducing a more nuanced, bank-specific capital regime.

From Reuters ● Jun. 26, 2023

“We are not through a threshold or past the threshold. There’s no such thing as pass-fail when it comes to the climate crisis.”

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 4, 2022

The contests feel like a class that, amid a rough semester, is now being taught pass-fail.

From New York Times ● May 8, 2020

Or concocting a pass-fail test—he was famous for that type—where he threaded together questions that could throw a guy for a loss, with what seemed like a million possible answers.

From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier

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