fail

fail is a 4-letter English word with 24 senses as intransitive verb, transitive verb, and verb in the JumbleFix dictionary. One common meaning is: To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence; to cease to be furnished in the usual or expected manner, or to be altogether cut off from supply; to be lacking; as, streams fail; crops fail. Face value is 7 in Scrabble and 8 in Words With Friends. Use the entries below when you need a playable sense, a nearby word, or another arrangement of the same letters.

4 letters · Scrabble 7 · Words With Friends 8 · 24 senses

Definitions

1. intransitive verb. To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence; to cease to be furnished in the usual or expected manner, or to be altogether cut off from supply; to be lacking; as, streams fail; crops fail.
2. intransitive verb. To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; -- used with of.
3. intransitive verb. To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
4. intransitive verb. To deteriorate in respect to vigor, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker; as, a sick man fails.
5. intransitive verb. To perish; to die; -- used of a person.
6. intransitive verb. To be found wanting with respect to an action or a duty to be performed, a result to be secured, etc.; to miss; not to fulfill expectation.
7. intransitive verb. To come short of a result or object aimed at or desired ; to be baffled or frusrated.
8. intransitive verb. To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
9. intransitive verb. To become unable to meet one's engagements; especially, to be unable to pay one's debts or discharge one's business obligation; to become bankrupt or insolvent.
10. transitive verb. To be wanting to ; to be insufficient for; to disappoint; to desert.
11. transitive verb. To miss of attaining; to lose.
12. intransitive verb. Miscarriage; failure; deficiency; fault; -- mostly superseded by failure or failing, except in the phrase without fail.
13. intransitive verb. Death; decease.
14. verb. get worse

    "Her health is declining"

15. verb. stop operating or functioning

    "The engine finally went"

    "The car died on the road"

    Synonyms: break, die, go

16. verb. prove insufficient

    "The water supply for the town failed after a long drought"

17. verb. disappoint, prove undependable to; abandon, forsake

    "His sense of smell failed him this time"

    "His strength finally failed him"

    Synonyms: betray

18. verb. become bankrupt or insolvent; fail financially and close

    "The toy company went bankrupt after the competition hired cheap Mexican labor"

    "A number of banks failed that year"

19. verb. fall short in what is expected

    "She failed in her obligations as a good daughter-in-law"

    "We must not fail his obligation to the victims of the Holocaust"

20. verb. fail to get a passing grade

    "She studied hard but failed nevertheless"

    "Did I fail the test?"

    Synonyms: bomb, flunk

21. verb. judge unacceptable

    "The teacher failed six students"

22. verb. be unsuccessful

    "Where do today's public schools fail?"

    "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably"

    Synonyms: miscarry

23. verb. fail to do something; leave something undone

    "She failed to notice that her child was no longer in his crib"

    "The secretary failed to call the customer and the company lost the account"

    Synonyms: neglect

24. verb. be unable

    "I fail to understand your motives"

Synonyms

break, die, go, betray, bomb, flunk, miscarry, neglect

Anagrams

Other playable words that use exactly the letters in fail:

alif, fila

Common word forms

fails, failed, failing

Words from these letters

If you are holding these tiles, the unscrambler for FAIL lists every valid word you can make from the same letters, including shorter plays.