fail
/feɪl/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.61 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)
Transitive verb
verb
To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert; to disappoint one's expectations.
Transitive verb
verb
To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.
Example Sentences
- "Throughout my life, I have always failed."
- "If they ſhoulde gyue battayle it was to be doubted, leaſt through treaſon amõgſt themſelues, the armie ſhould be betrayed into the enimies hands, the which would not fayle to execute all kinde of crueltie in the ſlaughter of the whole nation."
- "As the world’s drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one."
- "The truck failed to start."
- "The report fails to take into account all the mitigating factors."
- "Those who have advocated the closure of the G.C. have so far failed to say by which alternative route this North-to-West traffic could be carried."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el-der. Proto-Italic *falsō? Classical Latin fallere Vulgar Latin *fallīre Old French falirbor. Middle English failen English fail Inherited from Middle English failen, borrowed from Old French falir, from Vulgar Latin *fallire, alteration of Latin fallere (“to deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰāl- (“to lie, deceive”) or Proto-Indo-European *(s)gʷʰh₂el- (“to stumble”). Compare Alemannic German fääle (“to lack”), Cimbrian béelan, véelan (“to fail”), veln (“to be absent, missing”), Dutch falen, feilen (“to fail, miss”), German fallieren, fehlen (“to fail, miss, lack”), Danish fejle (“to fail, err”), Swedish fallera (“to fail, break, malfunction”), Spanish fallar (“to fail, miss”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: failen, falir, *fallire, fallō, *(s)gʷʰh₂el-, -
Usage
Inflected Forms
fails (present, singular)
failing (participle, present)
failed (participle, past)
failed (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
failed (first person, past)
failest (archaic, present)
failed (past, second person)
failedst (archaic, past)
faileth (archaic, present)
failed (past, singular)