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failing

noun

Simple meaning

Not succeeding, or a weakness in someone's character.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

fayling

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IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈfeɪlɪŋ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Weakness; defect

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
General and technical use

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More ways to use failing

  • “He was quick to point out his wife's failings.”noun
  • “His failing the course led to his disqualification.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

failing healthfailing heartfailing strengthfailing eyesight

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • failverbBase word

    Fail to do something.

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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.