Wiktionary

fault

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English faute, faulte, from Anglo-Norman faute, Old French faute, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“shortcoming”), feminine of *fallitus, in place of Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Displaced native Middle English schuld, schuild (“fault”) (from Old English scyld (“fault”)), Middle English lac (“fault, lack”) (from Middle Dutch lak (“lack, fault”)), Middle English last (“fault, vice”) (from Old Norse lǫstr (“fault, vice, crime”)). Compare French faute (“fault, foul”), Portuguese falta (“lack, shortage”) and Spanish falta (“lack, absence”). More at fail, false.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fault (plural faults)

  1. A defect; something that detracts from perfection.
  2. A mistake or error.
    No! This is my fault, not yours.
    • 2020, Body Count (lyrics and music), “Point the Finger”:
      They shoot first and ask questions last / Could be yours, could be mine / And then they point the finger at you / How many more innocent people and kids gotta get killed by these police, man? / And then it's always the victim's fault
  3. A weakness of character; a failing.
    Despite for all her faults, she’s a good person at heart.
  4. A characteristic, positive or negative or both, which subjects a person or thing to increased risk of danger.
    You're still young, that's your fault.
    • 1970, Cat Stevens, Tea for the Tillerman, Father and Son:
    • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
      The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
  5. A minor offense.
  6. Blame; the responsibility for a mistake.
    The fault lies with you.
    • 2018 June 5, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Vanessa Friedman, Matthew Schneier, “Kate Spade, whose handbags carried women into adulthood, is dead at 55”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 June 2018:
      A police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that a note found at the scene addressed to Ms. [Kate] Spade's 13-year-old daughter indicated, among other things, that what had happened was not the child’s fault.
  7. (seismology) A fracture in a rock formation causing a discontinuity.
  8. (mining) In coal seams, coal rendered worthless by impurities in the seam.[1]
    slate fault  dirt fault
  9. (tennis) An illegal serve.
  10. (electrical) An abnormal connection in a circuit.
  11. (obsolete) want; lack
  12. (hunting) A lost scent; act of losing the scent.

Synonyms

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Hyponyms

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(seismology):

Derived terms

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Terms derived from fault (noun)
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Translations

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Verb

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fault (third-person singular simple present faults, present participle faulting, simple past and past participle faulted)

  1. (transitive) To criticize, blame or find fault with something or someone.
    • a. 1723, unknown author, The Devonshire Nymph:
      For that, says he, I ne'er will fault thee / But for humbleness exalt thee.
    • 2024 May 29, Philip Haigh, “The digital revolution and the switch to in-cab signalling”, in RAIL, number 1010, page 29:
      "There will a team over there [he waves towards York's Rail Operating Centre] like flight engineers, maintaining it and faulting it from a ROC rather than a van by the side of the track."
  2. (intransitive, geology) To fracture.
  3. (intransitive) To commit a mistake or error.
  4. (intransitive, computing) To undergo a page fault.
    • 2002, Æleen Frisch, Essential system administration:
      When a page is read in, a few pages surrounding the faulted page are typically loaded as well in the same I/O operation in an effort to head off future page faults.

Translations

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to undergo a page fault

References

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  1. ^ Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond (1881) “Fault”, in A Glossary of Mining and Metallurgical Terms. […], Easton, Pa.: [American] Institute [of Mining Engineers], […], →OCLC.

French

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Verb

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fault

  1. Obsolete spelling of faut (third-person singular present indicative of falloir)

German

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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fault

  1. inflection of faulen:
    1. second-person plural present
    2. third-person singular present
    3. plural imperative

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English fault.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fault n (plural faulturi)

  1. (sports) fault

Declension

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Declension of fault
singular plural
indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
nominative/accusative (un) fault faultul (niște) faulturi faulturile
genitive/dative (unui) fault faultului (unor) faulturi faulturilor
vocative faultule faulturilor
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