Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

run afoul of

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.63 in modern English

Syllables: run afoul of
IPA

16

Scrabble Score

10

Letters

1

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

verb

To become entangled in; to run aground on.

verb

Example Sentences

"When quoting others, take care not to run afoul of copyright rules."
"Facebook ran afoul of Apple because it used this system to distribute its data-collection app to consumers outside the company, which isn’t allowed."
"Such posts, and more extreme examples of hate speech that spiked on the platform since his takeover, could run afoul of the EU's framework for combating racism and xenophobia, landing Twitter — and Musk himself — in hot water with the European Commission."

Inflected Forms

runs afoul of (present, singular) running afoul of (participle, present) ran afoul of (past)

Questions

What does run afoul of mean?: To become entangled in; to run aground on.

How to pronounce run afoul of

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