Definition of failure

"failure" in the noun sense

1. failure

an act that fails

"his failure to pass the test"

2. failure

an event that does not accomplish its intended purpose

"the surprise party was a complete failure"

3. failure

lack of success

"he felt that his entire life had been a failure"

"that year there was a crop failure"

4. failure, loser, nonstarter, unsuccessful person

a person with a record of failing someone who loses consistently

5. failure

an unexpected omission

"he resented my failure to return his call"

"the mechanic's failure to check the brakes"

6. bankruptcy, failure

inability to discharge all your debts as they come due

"the company had to declare bankruptcy"

"fraudulent loans led to the failure of many banks"

7. failure

loss of ability to function normally

"kidney failure"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.


View WordNet® License

Quotations for failure

Now all is done that men can do
And all is done in vain. [ Burns ]

It is the empiric who never fails. [ Willmott ]

To fail at all is to fail utterly. [ Lowell ]

A first failure is often a blessing. [ A. L. Brown ]

But screw your courage to the sticking place,
And we'll not fail. [ William Shakespeare ]

He only is exempt from failures who makes no efforts. [ Whately ]

In the lexicon of youth, which fate reserves
For a bright manhood, there is no such word as - fail. [ Lytton ]

Look at the bright side of a failure as well as the dark. [ Anon ]

A man of intellect without energy added to it is a failure. [ Chamfort ]

There is not a fiercer hell than failure in a great object. [ Keats ]

What is failure except feebleness?
And what is it to miss one's mark except to aim widely and weakly? [ Ouida ]

Failure is more frequently from want of energy than want of capital. [ Daniel Webster ]

Society is ever ready to worship success, but rarely forgives failure. [ Mme. Roland ]

Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm. [ Winston Churchill ]

Half the failures in life come from pulling one's horse when he is leaping. [ Thomas Hood ]

I was never afraid of failure, for I would sooner fail than not be among the best. [ Keats ]

A failure establishes only this, that our determination to succeed was not strong enough. [ Bovee ]

The hardest trial of the heart is, whether it can bear a rival's failure without triumph. [ J. Aikin ]

Although strength should fail, the effort will deserve praise. In great enterprises the attempt is enough. [ Propertius ]

Perseverance, self-reliance, energetic effort, are doubly strengthened when you rise from a failure to battle again. [ Anon ]

As long as we work on God's line. He will aid us. When we attempt to work on our own lines. He rebukes us with failure. [ T. L. Cuyler ]

Many men and women spend their lives in unsuccessful attempts to spin the flax God sends them upon a wheel they can never use. [ J. G. Holland ]

Wherever there is failure, there is some giddiness, some superstition about luck, some step omitted, which Nature never pardons. [ Emerson ]

Failures always overtake those who have the power to do, without the will to act, and who need that essential quality in life, energy. [ James Ellis ]

Complaints are vain; we will try to do better another time. Tomorrow and tomorrow. A few designs and a few failures, and the time of designing is past. [ Johnson ]

I'm proof against that word "failure." I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure in cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best. [ George Eliot ]

Shouldst thou fail, let it not trouble thee, for failure (defect) leads to love. If thou canst not free thyself from failure, thou wilt never forgive others. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]

Not only so, but scarcely any attempt is entirely a failure; scarcely any theory, the result of steady thought, is altogether false; no tempting form of error is without some latent charm derived from truth. [ Whewell ]

People who love once in their lives are really shallow people. What they call their loyalty and their fidelity is either the lethargy of custom or lack of imagination. Faithfulness is to the emotional life what constancy is to the intellectual life, simply a confession of failure. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]

The failure of his mind in old age is often less the result of natural decay than of disuse. Ambition has ceased to operate; contentment brings indolence: indolence, decay of mental power, ennui, and sometimes death. Men have been known to die, literally speaking, of disease induced by intellectual vacancy. [ Sir Benjamin Brodie ]

Albeit failure in any cause produces a correspondent misery in the soul, yet it is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterward carefully eschew. [ Keats ]

The misery of human life is made up of large masses, each separated from the other by certain intervals. One year the death of a child; years after, a failure in trade; after another longer or shorter interval, a daughter may have married unhappily; in all - but the singularly unfortunate, the integral parts that compose the sum-total of the unhappiness of a man's life are easily counted and distinctly remembered. [ Coleridge ]

failure in Scrabble®

The word failure is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 10

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Play In The Letters failure:

FAILURE
(92 = 42 + 50)

Seven Letter Word Alert: (1 word)

failure

 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word failure

FAILURE
(92 = 42 + 50)
FAILURE
(90 = 40 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(80 = 30 + 50)
FAILURE
(80 = 30 + 50)
FAILURE
(78 = 28 + 50)
FAILURE
(78 = 28 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(66 = 16 + 50)
FAILURE
(66 = 16 + 50)
FAILURE
(65 = 15 + 50)
FAILURE
(64 = 14 + 50)
FAILURE
(64 = 14 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(61 = 11 + 50)

The 200 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In failure

FAILURE
(92 = 42 + 50)
FAILURE
(90 = 40 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(83 = 33 + 50)
FAILURE
(80 = 30 + 50)
FAILURE
(80 = 30 + 50)
FAILURE
(78 = 28 + 50)
FAILURE
(78 = 28 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(74 = 24 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(72 = 22 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(70 = 20 + 50)
FAILURE
(66 = 16 + 50)
FAILURE
(66 = 16 + 50)
FAILURE
(65 = 15 + 50)
FAILURE
(64 = 14 + 50)
FAILURE
(64 = 14 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(62 = 12 + 50)
FAILURE
(61 = 11 + 50)
IREFUL
(39)
EARFUL
(39)
AFIRE
(36)
FLARE
(36)
FILER
(36)
FRAIL
(36)
FLIER
(36)
FLAIR
(36)
FERAL
(36)
FUEL
(33)
FAIL
(33)
FILE
(33)
FURL
(33)
FIRE
(33)
ALEF
(33)
FEAR
(33)
LEAF
(33)
FARE
(33)
FLEA
(33)
FAIR
(33)
FLUE
(33)
FERAL
(32)
FRAIL
(32)
FLIER
(32)
FLAIR
(32)
FLARE
(32)
FILER
(32)
IREFUL
(30)
EARFUL
(30)
IREFUL
(30)
EARFUL
(30)
IREFUL
(30)
EARFUL
(30)
EARFUL
(30)
IREFUL
(30)
IREFUL
(30)
EARFUL
(30)
LIFER
(27)
EARFUL
(27)
FLARE
(27)
FLARE
(27)
FILER
(27)
FERAL
(27)
FERAL
(27)
FERAL
(27)
FLIER
(27)
FILER
(27)
FLARE
(27)
FILER
(27)
FLAIR
(27)
FLAIR
(27)
IREFUL
(27)
LIFER
(27)
EARFUL
(27)
FLAIR
(27)
FLIER
(27)
FLIER
(27)
RIFLE
(27)
IREFUL
(27)
RIFLE
(27)
FRAIL
(27)
AFIRE
(27)
AFIRE
(27)
LIFER
(27)
RIFLE
(27)
FRAIL
(27)
RIFLE
(27)
LIFER
(27)
FRAIL
(27)
AFIRE
(27)
FAIR
(24)
FLAIR
(24)
FLARE
(24)
LIFER
(24)
LIFER
(24)
AFIRE
(24)
FLAIR
(24)
FIRE
(24)
FERAL
(24)
FLAIR
(24)
AFIRE
(24)
LIFER
(24)
LIFE
(24)
FILER
(24)
ALEF
(24)
FLEA
(24)
FARE
(24)
FLARE
(24)
AFIRE
(24)
FLARE
(24)
FLARE
(24)
FILER
(24)
FILE
(24)
FILER
(24)
FILER
(24)
FEAR
(24)
RIFE
(24)
FERAL
(24)
RIFLE
(24)
LIFE
(24)
FURL
(24)
FLUE
(24)
RIFLE
(24)
FRAIL
(24)
FRAIL
(24)
FRAIL
(24)
FAIL
(24)
RIFLE
(24)
FRAIL
(24)
FRAIL
(24)
FLAIR
(24)
FERAL
(24)
FILER
(24)
FERAL
(24)
FLIER
(24)
FLARE
(24)
FLIER
(24)
FLIER
(24)
FUEL
(24)
FERAL
(24)
FLAIR
(24)
RIFE
(24)
FLIER
(24)
FLIER
(24)
LEAF
(24)
EARFUL
(22)
EARFUL
(22)
FARE
(22)
FURL
(22)
EARFUL
(22)
ALEF
(22)
FAIR
(22)
FEAR
(22)
FLUE
(22)
FUEL
(22)
FAIL
(22)
FLEA
(22)
IREFUL
(22)
LEAF
(22)
IREFUL
(22)
IREFUL
(22)
FILE
(22)
IREFUL
(22)
EARFUL
(22)
FIRE
(22)
FIRE
(21)
FARE
(21)
FARE
(21)
FILE
(21)
FIRE
(21)
FEAR
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FAIL
(21)
FEAR
(21)
FAIR
(21)
FILE
(21)

failure in Words With Friends™

The word failure is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 12

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Play In The Letters failure:

FAILURE
(101 = 66 + 35)

Seven Letter Word Alert: (1 word)

failure

 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word failure

FAILURE
(101 = 66 + 35)
FAILURE
(95 = 60 + 35)
FAILURE
(89 = 54 + 35)
FAILURE
(89 = 54 + 35)
FAILURE
(89 = 54 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(77 = 42 + 35)
FAILURE
(77 = 42 + 35)
FAILURE
(77 = 42 + 35)
FAILURE
(75 = 40 + 35)
FAILURE
(67 = 32 + 35)
FAILURE
(67 = 32 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(61 = 26 + 35)
FAILURE
(61 = 26 + 35)
FAILURE
(61 = 26 + 35)
FAILURE
(61 = 26 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(57 = 22 + 35)
FAILURE
(54 = 19 + 35)
FAILURE
(53 = 18 + 35)
FAILURE
(53 = 18 + 35)
FAILURE
(53 = 18 + 35)
FAILURE
(53 = 18 + 35)
FAILURE
(52 = 17 + 35)
FAILURE
(51 = 16 + 35)
FAILURE
(51 = 16 + 35)
FAILURE
(51 = 16 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(48 = 13 + 35)
FAILURE
(48 = 13 + 35)
FAILURE
(48 = 13 + 35)
FAILURE
(47 = 12 + 35)

The 200 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In failure

FAILURE
(101 = 66 + 35)
FAILURE
(95 = 60 + 35)
FAILURE
(89 = 54 + 35)
FAILURE
(89 = 54 + 35)
FAILURE
(89 = 54 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(83 = 48 + 35)
FAILURE
(77 = 42 + 35)
FAILURE
(77 = 42 + 35)
FAILURE
(77 = 42 + 35)
FAILURE
(75 = 40 + 35)
EARFUL
(69)
IREFUL
(69)
FAILURE
(67 = 32 + 35)
FAILURE
(67 = 32 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(63 = 28 + 35)
FAILURE
(61 = 26 + 35)
FAILURE
(61 = 26 + 35)
FAILURE
(61 = 26 + 35)
FAILURE
(61 = 26 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
FAILURE
(59 = 24 + 35)
IREFUL
(57)
EARFUL
(57)
FAILURE
(57 = 22 + 35)
FAILURE
(54 = 19 + 35)
FAILURE
(53 = 18 + 35)
FAILURE
(53 = 18 + 35)
FAILURE
(53 = 18 + 35)
FAILURE
(53 = 18 + 35)
FAILURE
(52 = 17 + 35)
FLAIR
(51)
FLARE
(51)
FLIER
(51)
FERAL
(51)
FLUE
(51)
FAILURE
(51 = 16 + 35)
FAILURE
(51 = 16 + 35)
FRAIL
(51)
FUEL
(51)
FAILURE
(51 = 16 + 35)
FURL
(51)
FILER
(51)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(50 = 15 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
FAILURE
(49 = 14 + 35)
AFIRE
(48)
FAILURE
(48 = 13 + 35)
FAILURE
(48 = 13 + 35)
FLEA
(48)
LEAF
(48)
FAILURE
(48 = 13 + 35)
FAIL
(48)
FILE
(48)
ALEF
(48)
FAILURE
(47 = 12 + 35)
IREFUL
(45)
FEAR
(45)
IREFUL
(45)
FARE
(45)
IREFUL
(45)
EARFUL
(45)
EARFUL
(45)
EARFUL
(45)
FAIR
(45)
FIRE
(45)
IREFUL
(44)
EARFUL
(44)
IREFUL
(44)
EARFUL
(44)
EARFUL
(39)
IREFUL
(39)
IREFUL
(39)
EARFUL
(39)
EARFUL
(39)
FURL
(39)
FUEL
(39)
FLARE
(39)
FLAIR
(39)
FRAIL
(39)
FLIER
(39)
IREFUL
(39)
FERAL
(39)
RIFLE
(39)
LIFER
(39)
FAIL
(36)
FLIER
(36)
FILER
(36)
FRAIL
(36)
FERAL
(36)
FLAIR
(36)
LIFE
(36)
LIFER
(36)
RIFLE
(36)
LEAF
(36)
FLARE
(36)
FLAIR
(34)
FLARE
(34)
FLIER
(34)
FILER
(34)
FERAL
(34)
FRAIL
(34)
FERAL
(33)
FERAL
(33)
FILER
(33)
RIFLE
(33)
FLUE
(33)
EARFUL
(33)
EARFUL
(33)
FLARE
(33)
FLAIR
(33)
LIFER
(33)
IREFUL
(33)
FLIER
(33)
LIFER
(33)
FILER
(33)
FLIER
(33)
LIFER
(33)
IREFUL
(33)
FRAIL
(33)
RIFLE
(33)
FRAIL
(33)
FLAIR
(33)
FLARE
(33)
RIFLE
(33)
FILER
(33)
AFIRE
(32)
IREFUL
(30)
LIEU
(30)
FILE
(30)
LIFE
(30)
AFIRE
(30)
ALEF
(30)
LURE
(30)
EARFUL
(30)
IREFUL
(30)
LIEU
(30)
IREFUL
(30)
FLEA
(30)
AFIRE
(30)
EARFUL
(30)
EARFUL
(30)
AFIRE
(30)
FUEL
(27)
FUEL
(27)
RIFE
(27)
FUEL
(27)
RAIL
(27)
RIFE
(27)
REAL
(27)
FURL
(27)
FRAIL
(27)
RIEL
(27)
FLUE
(27)
FURL
(27)
FLUE
(27)
FLUE
(27)
FAIR
(27)
FLARE
(27)
LIRE
(27)
RIAL
(27)
FERAL
(27)
FURL
(27)
LIRA
(27)
FURL
(27)
FLUE
(27)
FRAIL
(27)
FERAL
(27)
FLARE
(27)
FRAIL
(27)
EARL
(27)
RIFLE
(27)
LARI
(27)
FLIER
(27)
LAIR
(27)
LIFER
(27)
FILER
(27)
FLIER
(27)
RIFLE
(27)

Words within the letters of failure

2 letter words in failure (8 words)

3 letter words in failure (17 words)

5 letter words in failure (9 words)

6 letter words in failure (2 words)

7 letter words in failure (1 word)

failure + 1 blank (3 words)

failure + 2 blanks (5 words)

Words containing the sequence failure

Words that start with failure (2 words)

Words with failure in them (2 words)

Words that end with failure (2 words)

Word Growth involving failure

Shorter words in failure

ai ail fail

fa fail

re lure

Longer words containing failure

failures nonfailures

nonfailure nonfailures