Meaning & use
malfunction
A failure to work properly or as intended, especially referring to a machine or system.
See it in a sentence
A sudden malfunction in the engine forced the pilot to land early.
Technicians traced the outage to a malfunction in the main server.
A note on using this word
Malfunction can also be a verb, as in 'the printer malfunctioned,' meaning it stopped working correctly.
Words with a similar meaning
breakdownglitch
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
Another way to use it
2. verb
To fail to work correctly or as intended.
The smoke alarm malfunctioned last night and would not stop beeping.
Make it your own
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