Failing

How to spell failing

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce failing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does failing mean?

1. verbPresent participle of fail: becoming unsuccessful, weaker, or unable to continue.
2. nounA weakness or shortcoming in someone's character or abilities.
3. prepositionIn the absence of; if something does not happen.

Failing in a sentence

• verb

  The small bakery was failing despite the loyal regulars.

• noun

  A habit of interrupting people is his one real failing.

• preposition

  Failing a better offer, we will sign this contract today.

• verb

  His eyesight has been failing steadily over the past decade.

• noun

  Poor timekeeping was always her greatest failing.

• preposition

  Failing that, the meeting can be postponed until next week.

Where does failing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The base verb 'fail' came into English in the 1200s from Old French faillir, meaning 'to be lacking, to come short, or to disappoint', which itself descended from the Latin verb fallere, meaning 'to deceive, to trip up, or to disappoint'. That same Latin root sits behind a surprising family of English words, including 'false', 'fallacy', and 'fault', all of which carry a shared idea of something going wrong or letting you down. The form 'failing' is the present participle of fail, made with the ordinary English -ing ending, and it broadened over time into both a noun naming a personal weakness and a preposition meaning 'in the absence of'. The noun sense, recorded from the late 1500s, treats a fault as a way in which a person comes short. The spelling is mercifully regular: the trap, if any, is simply remembering the single 'l' rather than doubling it.

How the word is built

• fail (from Latin fallere: to deceive, disappoint)
• -ing (verbal/noun suffix)