double fault
noun
Simple meaning
The missing of both the first serve and second serve, resulting in a point for the receiver.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
duhbuhlfawltSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈdʌbəlfɔlt
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
tennis
The missing of both the first serve and second serve, resulting in a point for the receiver.
computing
An exception thrown by the CPU while trying to call the handler of another exception (e.g. the exception handler is invalid or the call stack has overflowed).
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (tennis) The missing of both the first serve and second serve, resulting in a point for the receiver.
Used this way, double fault is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a sporting use: familiar to anyone who follows the game, and puzzling to anyone who does not.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Sports
- News/reporting
- Everyday conversation
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.