fault

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /fɔːlt/, /fɒlt/, X-SAMPA: /fO:lt/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA: /fɔlt/, X-SAMPA: /fOlt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (cot–caught merger) IPA: /fɑlt/
• Rhymes: -ɔːlt

Etymology

From Old French faute, faulte, from Middle English faulte, faute, from Anglo-Norman faute, faulte, from Vulgar Latin *fallita (“shortcoming”), from Latin falsus, perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Displaced native Middle English schuld, schuild (“fault”) (from Old English scyld (“fault”)), Middle English lac (“fault, lack”) (from Middle Dutch lak (“lack, fault”)), Middle English last (“fault, vice”) (from Old Norse lǫstr, löstr (“fault, vice, crime”)).

Noun

fault (plural faults)

1. A defect; something that detracts from perfection.
2. A mistake or error.
3. A weakness of character.
4. A minor offense.
5. Blame; the responsibility for a mistake.
6. (seismology) A fracture in a rock formation causing a discontinuity
7. (tennis) An illegal serve.
8. (electrical) An abnormal connection in a circuit.

Derived terms

• at fault
• to a fault

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:defect

Translations

defect

• Albanian: gabim (sq) m, faj (sq) m
• Arabic: خلل (ar) (khalal) m
• Bulgarian: дефект (bg) (defekt) m, недостатък (bg) (nedostatăk) m
• Catalan: errada (ca) f, culpa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 毛病 (cmn) (máobing, máobìng), 缺點 (cmn), 缺点 (cmn) (quēdiǎn)

• Czech: chyba (cs) f
• Esperanto: peko (eo)
• French: défaut (fr) m (1, 3), faute (fr) f (2, 4, 5, 7)
• German: Fehler (de) m
• Hindi: खोट (hi) (khoṭ)
• Hungarian: hiba (hu)
• Italian: colpa (it) f
• Japanese: 欠点 (ja) (けってん, ketten), 欠陥 (ja) (けっかん, kekkan)
• Latin: culpa (la) f

• Polish: wada (pl) f
• Portuguese: defeito (pt) m, falha (pt) f
• Romanian: hibă (ro) f
• Russian: дефект (ru) (defékt) m, изъян (ru) (iz”ján) m, ошибка (ru) (ošíbka) f
• Scottish Gaelic: cron (gd) m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: грешка (sh) f, грјешка (sh) f, мана (sh) f, кривња (sh) f

  Roman: greška (sh) f, grješka (sh) f, mana (sh) f, krivnja (sh) f

• Slovak: chyba (sk) f
• Slovene: hiba (sl) f
• Spanish: defecto (es) m, falla (es) f
• Swedish: fel (sv) n
• Telugu: తప్పిదం (te) (tappidaM)
• Turkish: yanlış (tr)

mistake, e.g., of a person

• Arabic: خطأ (ar) (khaTa') m

  Egyptian: زمب (ar) f

• Bulgarian: грешка (bg) (greška) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 錯誤 (cmn), 错误 (cmn) (cuòwù)

• French: faute (fr) f
• German: Schuld (de) f
• Greek: φταίξιμο (el) (ftaíximo)
• Hindi: ग़लती (hi) (ġalatī) f, क़सूर (hi) (qasūr) m
• Japanese: せい (ja) (sei), 誤り (ja) (ayamari)

• Latgalian: klaida, vaine
• Latin: culpa (la) f
• Latvian: kļuda (lv), vaina (lv)
• Norwegian: skyld (no) m and f
• Portuguese: culpa (pt) f
• Romanian: vină (ro) f, greșeală (ro) f, culpă (ro) f
• Russian: вина (ru) (viná) f, ошибка (ru) (ošíbka) f
• Scottish Gaelic: cron (gd) m, coire (gd) f
• Swedish: skuld (sv) c
• Turkish: hata (tr) (hatā)

geological fracture through rock

• Dutch: breuk (nl) c
• French: faille (fr) f, faute (fr) f
• Italian: fessura (it) f, crepa (it) f, frattura (it) f, faglia (it) f
• Japanese: 断層 (ja) (dansō)
• Latin: culpa (la) f
• Norwegian: forkastning (no) m and f
• Polish: uskok (pl) m

• Portuguese: falha (pt) f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: расјед (sh)

  Roman: rasjed (sh) m

• Spanish: falla (es) f
• Swedish: förkastning (sv) c

A minor offense

• Bulgarian: простъпка (bg) (prostăpka) f

Blame; the responsibility for a mistake

• Bulgarian: вина (bg) (vina) f

• Polish: wina (pl) f

Verb

fault (third-person singular simple present faults, present participle faulting, simple past and past participle faulted)

1. (transitive) To criticize, blame or find fault with something or someone.
   • Traditional song

     For that I will not fault thee / But for humbleness exalt thee.

2. (intransitive, geology) To fracture.
3. (intransitive) To commit a mistake or error.
4. (intransitive, computing) To undergo a page fault.
   • 2002, Æleen Frisch, Essential system administration

     When a page is read in, a few pages surrounding the faulted page are typically loaded as well in the same I/O operation in an effort to head off future page faults.

Translations

• French: mettre en défaut (1), trouver une faille dans (1), se failler (2), faillir (3)

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French

Verb

fault

1. Obsolete spelling of faut.