Meaning & use
failure
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
The state of not reaching a goal or not doing what was expected.
Grammar: Uncountable for the general idea, countable for an event: failure is normal, a failure to launch.
Patterns
- failure to do something
- failure of something
Failure to pay the fee will result in cancellation.
The failure of the first experiment taught them a lot.
Their plan ended in failure.
nouncountable
A person or thing that does not succeed.
Grammar: Countable: a failure, many failures.
Patterns
- a failure as something
He felt like a failure after losing his job.
The new app was a commercial failure.
Not every first attempt is a failure.
nouncountable or uncountable
A breakdown in which a machine, system or body part stops working.
Grammar: Often with a noun before: engine failure, power failure.
Patterns
- failure of something
- power failure
A power failure left the whole street dark.
The patient suffered heart failure.
Brake failure caused the accident.
Word forms
| plural | failures |
|---|
Common combinations
- complete failure
- The campaign was a complete failure.
- engine failure
- Engine failure forced the plane to land.
- fear of failure
- Fear of failure kept her from applying.
- failure to comply
- Failure to comply may lead to a fine.
- learn from failure
- Good teams learn from failure.
Synonyms and how they differ
- defeat
- Defeat means losing to an opponent in a contest, while failure is about missing a goal in general.
- breakdown
- Breakdown refers to machines or systems stopping, and also to a collapse of talks.
- flop
- Flop is informal and used for entertainment or products that sell or perform badly.
- fiasco
- Fiasco describes a failure that is embarrassing and chaotic, not just unsuccessful.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: failure or fault?
failure vs fault
A fault is a flaw or the cause of a problem, while failure is the result of not succeeding.
Practice
Which phrase correctly uses failure with the right pattern?
Choose one answer.
Failure to is followed by the base verb: failure to finish. The other patterns are not standard.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “failure”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.