FAULT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does fault mean? 

• FAULT (noun)
  The noun FAULT has 7 senses:

1. a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention

2. an imperfection in an object or machine

3. the quality of being inadequate or falling short of perfection

4. (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other

5. (electronics) equipment failure attributable to some defect in a circuit (loose connection or insulation failure or short circuit etc.)

6. responsibility for a bad situation or event

7. (sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside the prescribed area)

  Familiarity information: FAULT used as a noun is common.

• FAULT (verb)
  The verb FAULT has 1 sense:

1. put or pin the blame on

  Familiarity information: FAULT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FAULT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

error; fault; mistake

Context example:

I could understand his English in spite of his grammatical faults

Hypernyms ("fault" is a kind of...):

nonaccomplishment; nonachievement (an act that does not achieve its intended goal)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fault"):

confusion; mix-up (a mistake that results from taking one thing to be another)

renege; revoke (the mistake of not following suit when able to do so)

betise; folly; foolishness; imbecility; stupidity (a stupid mistake)

balls-up; ballup; cockup; mess-up (something badly botched or muddled)

bloomer; blooper; blunder; boner; boo-boo; botch; bungle; flub; foul-up; fuckup; pratfall (an embarrassing mistake)

omission; skip (a mistake resulting from neglect)

lapse; oversight (a mistake resulting from inattention)

offside ((sport) the mistake of occupying an illegal position on the playing field (in football, soccer, ice hockey, field hockey, etc.))

miscue; parapraxis; slip; slip-up (a minor inadvertent mistake usually observed in speech or writing or in small accidents or memory lapses etc.)

distortion (the mistake of misrepresenting the facts)

miscalculation; misestimation; misreckoning (a mistake in calculating)

incursion (the mistake of incurring liability or blame)

blot; smear; smirch; spot; stain (an act that brings discredit to the person who does it)

Derivation:

fault (put or pin the blame on)

faulty (characterized by errors; not agreeing with a model or not following established rules)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An imperfection in an object or machine

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

defect; fault; flaw

Context example:

if there are any defects you should send it back to the manufacturer

Hypernyms ("fault" is a kind of...):

imperfection; imperfectness (the state or an instance of being imperfect)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fault"):

blister (a flaw on a surface resulting when an applied substance does not adhere (as an air bubble in a coat of paint))

bug; glitch (a fault or defect in a computer program, system, or machine)

hole (a fault)

Derivation:

faulty (having a defect)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The quality of being inadequate or falling short of perfection

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

demerit; fault

Context example:

he knew his own faults much better than she did

Hypernyms ("fault" is a kind of...):

worth (the quality that renders something desirable or valuable or useful)

Sense 4

Meaning:

(geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

break; fault; faulting; fracture; geological fault; shift

Context example:

he studied the faulting of the earth's crust

Hypernyms ("fault" is a kind of...):

cleft; crack; crevice; fissure; scissure (a long narrow opening)

Meronyms (parts of "fault"):

fault line ((geology) line determined by the intersection of a geological fault and the earth's surface)

Domain category:

geology (a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fault"):

inclined fault (a geological fault in which one side is above the other)

strike-slip fault (a geological fault in which one of the adjacent surfaces appears to have moved horizontally)

Instance hyponyms:

Denali Fault (a major open geological fault in Alaska)

San Andreas Fault (a major geological fault in California; runs from San Diego to San Francisco; the source of serious earthquakes)

Sense 5

Meaning:

(electronics) equipment failure attributable to some defect in a circuit (loose connection or insulation failure or short circuit etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

it took much longer to find the fault than to fix it

Hypernyms ("fault" is a kind of...):

breakdown; equipment failure (a cessation of normal operation)

Domain category:

electronics (the branch of physics that deals with the emission and effects of electrons and with the use of electronic devices)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Responsibility for a bad situation or event

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

it was John's fault

Hypernyms ("fault" is a kind of...):

responsibility; responsibleness (a form of trustworthiness; the trait of being answerable to someone for something or being responsible for one's conduct)

Derivation:

fault (put or pin the blame on)

Sense 7

Meaning:

(sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside the prescribed area)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

he served too many double faults

Hypernyms ("fault" is a kind of...):

serve; service ((sports) a stroke that puts the ball in play)

Domain category:

lawn tennis; tennis (a game played with rackets by two or four players who hit a ball back and forth over a net that divides the court)

squash; squash rackets; squash racquets (a game played in an enclosed court by two or four players who strike the ball with long-handled rackets)

badminton (a game played on a court with light long-handled rackets used to volley a shuttlecock over a net)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fault"):

double fault ((tennis) two successive faults in serving resulting in the loss of the point)

footfault (a fault that occurs when the server in tennis fails to keep both feet behind the baseline)

• FAULT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they fault    ... he / she / it faults   
Past simple: faulted   
Past participle: faulted   
-ing form: faulting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Put or pin the blame on

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

blame; fault

Hypernyms (to "fault" is one way to...):

accuse; charge (blame for, make a claim of wrongdoing or misbehavior against)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody with something

Derivation:

fault (a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention)

fault (responsibility for a bad situation or event)

 Context examples 

I can't explain exactly, but I want to be above the little meannesses and follies and faults that spoil so many women.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But it was not Kiche's fault.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

If people are so silly as to indulge the sentiment, is it my fault?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Jane, you don't understand these things: children must be corrected for their faults.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He might be jealous of her brother as a rival, but if more had seemed implied, the fault must have been in her misapprehension.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

They had not a fault to find in him.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

You never see a fault in anybody.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

During a four-day experiment in Monterey Bay, the scientists recorded a 3.5 magnitude quake and seismic scattering from underwater fault zones.

(Underwater telecom cables make superb seismic network, National Science Foundation)

Images obtained by NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft reveal previously undetected small fault scarps— cliff-like landforms that resemble stair steps.

(The Incredible Shrinking Mercury is Active After All, NASA)

The wet sediments experienced seismic shaking in "marsquakes" related to movement along several large geological faults in the area.

(Signs of Ancient Mars Lakes and Quakes Seen in New Map, NASA)