defect
noun · verb
Simple meaning
The quantity or amount by which anything falls short.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
deefektSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdifɛkt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The quantity or amount by which anything falls short.
A fault or malfunction.
verb
intransitive
To abandon or turn against; to cease or change one's loyalty, especially from a military organisation or political party.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The quantity or amount by which anything falls short.
Used this way, defect is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A disorder of oral speech.
A birth defect involving the heart.
A disease or disorder that is inherited genetically.
The amount by which the mass of an atomic nucleus is less than the sum of the masses of its constituent particles.
A congenital abnormality in the septum between the left and right sides of the heart.
A common congenital heart defect.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.