Meaning of failure in English

failure

noun

/ˈfeɪ.ljər/ us

/ˈfeɪ.ljɚ/

failure noun (NO SUCCESS)

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B2 [ C or U ]

the fact of someone or something not succeeding:

complete failure The meeting was a complete failure.

total failure Now she finally had to admit that the project had been a total failure.

failure at I'm a bit of a failure at making (= I cannot make) cakes.

feel a failure I feel such a failure (= so unsuccessful) after losing my job.

end in failure Their attempt to climb Everest ended in failure.

be doomed to failure The whole project was doomed to failure right from the start (= it could never have succeeded).

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

the fact of not being successful

failureFailure is not an option.
breakdownThe complete breakdown of local infrastructure left residents without water or electricity.
meltdownThe markets experienced a meltdown at the news of the sale.
collapseThe car manufacturer's collapse left the region's economy in tatters.
failHe tried to sing the anthem, but it was an epic fail.

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Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

someone or something that is not successful

failureThe shuttle launch was a complete failure.
successThe operation was a success.
turkeyI really wanted to like it, but that show ended up being a real turkey.
clunkerUS That pitch was a real clunker.
bombUS His website was one of the biggest dotcom bombs in the history of the internet.
dudMy charger doesn't work - I think I've got a dud.

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Another crop failure could result in widespread famine.
The computer failure was due to a glitch caused by lightning.
The failure of the monsoon would destroy harvests on which 1000 million people rely.
The words 'Hard disk failure - program aborted' popped up on the screen.
The probable cause of death was heart failure.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Failures

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failure noun (NOT DO)

B2 [ U + to infinitive ]

the fact of not doing something that you must do or are expected to do:

failure to His failure to return her phone call made her realize that something was wrong.

Failure to keep the chemical at the right temperature could lead to an explosion.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

the fact of not doing something you should

failureFailure to follow the employee guidelines can lead to your immediate termination.
defaultThe bank seized his house because his mortgage was in default.
malpracticeThe surgeon was sued for malpractice.
derelictionHe was dishonourably discharged for dereliction of duty.
neglectCorruption and neglect resulted in a government that was weakened enough to be overthrown.
negligenceEducational standards deteriorated thanks to the negligence of the administration.

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There are serious penalties for failure to comply with the regulations.
The team blamed injuries and lack of preparation for their failure to win.
He was disappointed by his failure to secure the top job with the bank.
I regarded her failure to acknowledge my greeting as a slight.
The Opposition is making a lot of political capital out of the government's failure to invest in education.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Failures

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failure noun (STOP)

B2 [ C or U ]

the fact of something not working, or stopping working as well as it should:

heart failure He died of heart failure.

kidney failure Hypertension can lead to stroke, heart attack, and kidney failure.

liver failure Hepatitis A can cause sickness, diarrhoea, jaundice, and even liver failure.

The accident was caused by the failure of the reactor's cooling system.

business failure The number of business failures rose steeply last year.

crop failure After three crop failures in a row, the people face starvation.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Machines - not functioning

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(Definition of failure from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

failure | American Dictionary

failure

noun

/ˈfeɪl·jər/

failure noun (LACK OF SUCCESS)

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[ C/U ]

a lack of success in doing something:

[ U ] Their attempt to sail across the Atlantic Ocean ended in failure.

[ C ] He was a failure as a businessman.

failure noun (SOMETHING NOT DONE)

[ U ]

the fact of not doing something you should have done:

[ + to infinitive ] His failure to return her phone call told her that something was wrong.

failure noun (SOMETHING NOT WORKING)

[ C/U ]

the fact of something not working as it should:

[ U ] He died of heart failure.

[ C ] The new computer system was a complete failure (= It did not work).

(Definition of failure from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

failure | Business English

failure

noun

/ˈfeɪljər/ us

Add to word list Add to word list

[ C or U ]

a situation in which a company has been unsuccessful and has to stop operating:

The number and seriousness of the bank failures took economists by surprise.

We're finally seeing a slowdown in the rate of business failures.

See also

audit failure

market failure

[ U ]

lack of success in trying to do something:

If you're too scared of failure, you'll never try to achieve anything.

[ U ]

a situation in which a machine or system stops working:

The cause of the crash is now thought to be engine failure.

[ C ]

someone or something that is not successful:

He always thought of himself as a failure.

failure to do sth

a situation in which someone does not do something they should do or are expected to do:

The banks' failure to regulate more reckless lending led directly to the financial crisis.

(Definition of failure from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of failure

failure

In organic farming there are even some years with complete crop failures, which must be included in the calculation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Second, it must be noted that present extremely low levels of development are largely due to the failures of past centralised regimes.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Alternatively, higher early depression scores in the intervention group could reflect a failure of randomization or simple random fluctuation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One participant was removed due to a technical failure and four because of their high overall error rates (>20%) in the experimental task.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This process does require technical knowledge for rule construction and assumes that the user understands negation as failure extensively.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Technical failures, together with the clumsiness and indiscretion of its agents, wrecked operations with surprising frequency.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is also the continuing failure of law enforcement to control illegal harvesting, under-reporting and smuggling of the timber.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

And, so, it is by virtue of this conceptual connection that the failure of the ontological argument is supposed to compromise the cosmological argument.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These results support the claim that a failure of self-monitoring may underlie the core symptoms of schizophrenia.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, there is no statistical remedy for failure to recall episodes or symptoms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Externalities do not lead to institutional failure, they are a form of institutional failure - environmental problems are frequently symptoms of such failure.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The increasing failure rate property of consecutive-k-out-of-n systems.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There are many possible explanations for the students' failure.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In addition to the diagnoses of cardiac failure, training level of admitting physicians in emergency depar tments was an independent risk factor for early readmission.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Patients suffering from progressive autonomic failure with primary degeneration of autonomic neurons show a characteristic inability to contract the distal urethral sphincter.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with failure

failure

These are words often used in combination with failure.

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abysmal failure

The scheme was an abysmal failure even while forced labour was tolerated.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

academic failure

Structural relations model of self-rejection, disposition to deviance, and academic failure.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

admission of failure

Assistance from social services and voluntary organisations is tantamount to an admission of failure and a signal to those being cared for that they have become a burden.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with failure

What is the pronunciation of failure?

Translations of failure

in Chinese (Traditional)

失敗, 失敗的人（或事）, 沒做到…

Meaning of failure in English

failure noun (NO SUCCESS)

failure noun (NOT DO)

failure noun (STOP)

failure | American Dictionary

failure noun (LACK OF SUCCESS)

failure noun (SOMETHING NOT DONE)

failure noun (SOMETHING NOT WORKING)

failure | Business English

Examples of failure

Collocations with failure

failure

Translations of failure

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