Meaning & use
fault
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Meanings
noununcountable
Responsibility for something that has gone wrong; the blame for a mistake.
Grammar: Often after be: it is my fault. No plural in this sense.
Patterns
- it is someone's fault
- be at fault
The accident was not my fault.
Whose fault is it that the report is late?
The driver was at fault for the crash.
nouncountable
A weakness or flaw in a person or a thing.
Grammar: Countable: one fault, many faults.
Patterns
- a fault in something
- find fault with someone
Impatience is his main fault.
The engineer found a fault in the wiring.
The vase has a small fault near the base.
nouncountabletechnical
A long crack in the earth's crust along which blocks of rock have moved.
Grammar: Countable; often used in fault line.
Patterns
- a fault line
The city sits near a major fault.
Earthquakes occur when rock slips along a fault.
nouncountablesport
A badly served ball in tennis and similar sports, which counts against the server.
Grammar: Countable; a double fault loses the point.
Patterns
- a double fault
She lost the game with a double fault.
The umpire called a fault.
verbtransitive
To find something wrong with someone or something and criticize it.
Grammar: Takes an object and is often used negatively: you cannot fault her effort.
Patterns
- fault someone for something
- fault something
It is hard to fault the team's effort.
Critics faulted the film for its slow ending.
No one could fault her honesty.
Word forms
| plural | faults |
|---|---|
| third person singular | faults |
| past tense | faulted |
| past participle | faulted |
| -ing form | faulting |
Common combinations
- be at fault
- The other driver was at fault.
- find fault with
- He always finds fault with my work.
- through no fault of your own
- She lost her job through no fault of her own.
- a technical fault
- A technical fault delayed the train.
- to a fault
- He is generous to a fault.
Synonyms and how they differ
- blame
- Blame is the act of holding someone responsible, while fault is the responsibility itself.
- flaw
- Flaw suggests a built-in imperfection, often in a thing or an argument.
- defect
- Defect is more formal and often means a manufacturing problem.
- shortcoming
- Shortcoming is a mild word for a weakness in a person or plan.
Opposites
Word family
- faulty adjective
- not working properly or containing flaws
- faultless adjective
- without any fault
- faultlessly adverb
- in a way that has no mistakes
- faultfinding noun
- constant criticism of small things
Commonly confused: fault or flaw?
fault vs flaw
Flaw is a weakness in a thing or idea; fault can also mean blame, which flaw cannot.
Practice
The investigation found that the pilot was not ___ for the delay.
Choose one answer.
Be at fault is the fixed phrase meaning to be to blame. The other prepositions are not used this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “fault”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.