Flawed

How to spell flawed

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce flawed

What does flawed mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a fault, weakness, or imperfection that reduces value, soundness, or correctness.

Flawed in a sentence

• The report was based on flawed data and had to be withdrawn.

• The diamond was beautiful but slightly flawed near the edge.

Where does flawed come from?

Language of origin: Old Norse

The base word 'flaw' arrived in Middle English in the 1300s, most likely from Old Norse 'flaga', which meant a slab or flake of stone, the kind that splits or chips away from a larger piece. The earliest English uses described a flake or splinter, and from there the sense narrowed to a crack or fault in something otherwise sound, such as a crack in a gem or a metal blade. By the 1580s 'flaw' had taken on the figurative meaning of a defect in character, reasoning, or quality that we still use today. The adjective 'flawed' simply adds the participial '-ed' ending to mean 'marked by a flaw'. The spelling trap is small but real: the word keeps the 'aw' of 'flaw' and adds a plain '-ed', so it ends '-awed', not '-aud' or '-oad'.

How the word is built

• flaw (a fault or imperfection)
• -ed (adjective suffix, having)