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fault

Pronunciation: /fɔːlt/

The English word “fault” has 18 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Culpability; the responsibility for a blameworthy event.
  2. A failing of character; less severe than a vice.
  3. A characteristic, positive or negative or both, which increases one's risk of danger or difficulty.
  4. A strongly undesirable variation of food or drink caused by impurity or contamination.
  5. A point of weakness in something's physical structure.
  6. A minor offense.
  7. An illegal serve.
  8. A penalty point assessed in horseback events such as show jumping.
  9. An exception within a software program or process.
  10. A fracture in a rock formation causing a discontinuity.
  11. An abnormal connection within an electric circuit.
  12. A loss of the scent being tracked by a hound.
  13. An intrusion of another material, such as dirt or slate, within a coal seam.
  14. want; lack; absence

verb

  1. To criticize, blame or find fault with something or someone.
  2. To fracture.
  3. To commit a mistake or error.
  4. To undergo a page fault.

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.