falter
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To waver or be unsteady.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fawlterSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɔltɚ
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
To waver or be unsteady; to weaken or trail off.
ambitransitive
To stammer; to utter with hesitation, or in a weak and trembling manner.
figuratively
To lose faith or vigor; to doubt or abandon (a cause).
To hesitate in purpose or action.
To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; said of the mind or of thought.
To stumble.
noun
An unsteadiness.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To waver or be unsteady; to weaken or trail off.
Used this way, falter 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
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use falter
- “The speaker faltered when he saw his opponent enter the room.”verb
- “Their enthusiasm is faltering.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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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.