failed
verb
Form of fail , past tense of fail.
Simple meaning
To be unsuccessful.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fayldIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfeɪld
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.
verb
past tense of fail
To be unsuccessful.
past tense of fail
Prove insufficient
“The water supply for the town failed after a long drought.”
past tense of fail
Fail to get a passing grade
“She studied hard but failed nevertheless.”
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How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Proveverb
“The water supply for the town failed after a long drought.”
Failverb
“She studied hard but failed nevertheless.”
More ways to use failed
- “The water supply for the town failed after a long drought.”verb
- “She studied hard but failed nevertheless.”verb
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Word Family
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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.