Meaning of fault in English

fault

noun

/fɒlt/ us

/fɑːlt/

fault noun (MISTAKE)

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B1 [ U ]

a mistake, especially something for which you are to blame:

It's not my fault she didn't come!

She believes it was the doctor's fault that Peter died.

fault is with The fault was with the organizers, who failed to make the necessary arrangements for dealing with so many people.

fault lies with The fault clearly lies with an administration that has cut staff and failed to ensure adequate training.

through no fault of your own Through no fault of his own, he spent a week locked up in jail.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

be to blame for something

be to blameNo one can decide who is to blame.
be at faultBoth the fans and the players were at fault.
be someone's faultThis is all my fault.
be responsibleWe're still trying to determine who was responsible for the attacks.
the blame lies withSome of the blame lies with investors.
the blame rests withMuch of the blame rests with the government, which has confused people with conflicting health messages

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B2 [ C ]

a weakness in a person's character:

He has many faults, but dishonesty isn't one of them.

B2 [ C ]

a broken part or weakness in a machine or system:

The car has a serious design fault.

electrical fault An electrical fault caused the fire.

For all the faults in our education system, it is still better than that in many other countries.

[ C ]

(in tennis and some other games) a mistake made by a player who is beginning a game by hitting the ball

be at fault

to have done something wrong:

be at fault for Her doctor was at fault for not sending her straight to a specialist.

find fault with someone/something

to criticize someone or something, especially without good reasons:

He's always finding fault with my work.

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"It wasn't my fault." "Don't worry, I'm not accusing you."
The fault surely lies in the design of the equipment.
The electrician has diagnosed a fault in the wiring.
I admit it was entirely my fault.
With all her faults, she's still a really good friend.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Faults and mistakes

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Tennis & racket sports

fault noun (CRACK)

[ C ] geology specialized

a crack in the earth's surface where the rock has divided into two parts that move against each other:

fault line Surveyors say the fault line is capable of generating a major earthquake once in a hundred years.

Kevin Schafer/Photolibrary/GettyImages

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Geography: caves, cracks & crevices

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Idiom

be kind, generous, etc. to a fault

fault

verb

/fɒlt/ us

/fɑːlt/

fault verb (CRITICIZE)

[ T ]

to find a reason to criticize someone or something:

I can't fault the way they dealt with the complaint.

fault someone on something I can't fault you on your logic.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Disapproving & criticizing

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fault verb (SPORTS)

[ I ]

to hit a fault in tennis and other similar games:

fault on That's the fourth serve he's faulted on today.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Tennis & racket sports

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(Definition of fault from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

fault | American Dictionary

fault

noun

/fɔlt/

fault noun (SOMETHING WRONG)

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[ C ]

a quality in a person that shows that the person is not perfect, or a condition of something that shows that it is not working perfectly:

He loves me in spite of my faults.

Some people find fault in everything they see.

fault noun (RESPONSIBILITY)

[ U ]

responsibility for a mistake or for having done something wrong:

I screwed up, so it was my fault we didn’t finish on time.

The driver was at fault (= responsible) for the accident – he was going too fast.

fault noun (CRACK)

[ C ] earth science

a crack in the earth’s surface where the rock is divided into two parts that can move against each other in an earthquake (= a sudden, violent movement of the earth’s surface)

Idiom

to a fault

fault

verb [ T ]

/fɔlt/

fault verb [T] (RESPONSIBILITY)

to blame someone:

Professional athletes cannot be faulted for making millions of dollars when they attract the fans that make the sport popular.

(Definition of fault from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

fault | Business English

fault

noun

/fɔːlt/ us

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[ C ]

something that is wrong with a machine or system:

The car had a serious design fault and had to be recalled.

An electrical fault caused the fire.

[ U ]

the fact of being responsible for something bad that happens:

be sb's fault (that) It was the traders' fault that so many billions were lost.

be the fault of sb The court found that the accident was the fault of the local authority.

the fault lies with sb We need to decide whether the fault lies with the buyer or the seller in this case.

no-fault LAW

relating to legal processes, insurance claims, etc. in which it is not necessary to decide who is responsible for a bad situation:

He introduced the nation's first no-fault auto insurance law.

a no-fault contract/divorce/system

(Definition of fault from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of fault

fault

These theological and philosophical fault-lines, however, remain largely unmapped.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Note that this is in contrast to most traditional fault modeling approaches where the fault is represented as an additive or a multiplicative time-dependent quantity.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, it is also clear that the rural-urban fault line will not be removed or redrawn at least within the foreseeable future.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

But then he could not have been at fault for not using stronger cables in the first place.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, the succession is cut by a number of small faults so that the section is not continuous.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Subsequent intrusion of silicic magmas along these ring faults yielded the granites now preserved peripheral to the caldera-fill sequences.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Neither editor is at fault, but it is another case where the ambiguity of the notation is lost in the precision of the modern edition.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The results of fault-slip analysis show widely varying extension directions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The two fields were discovered in 1971 and are fault-bounded anticlinal structures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In addition, the signature identification in time series leading to fault detection and identification needs to be addressed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Sub-horizontal irregular grooves across fault surface are excavator marks, not primary features.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Once again, many of the concerns identified by the unions would appear to be better addressed by a no-fault system than by an adversarial system.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These vertical faults show diffuse recrystallization of calcite also along joints and major displacements.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In medicine, defects are disorders of a patient; in technical domains, defects are faults of a device.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It is that whether someone is worse off through his own fault depends on the origin of the unequal state.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of fault

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of fault?

B1,B2,B2,B2,C2

Translations of fault

in Chinese (Traditional)

錯誤, 過錯，過失, 責任…

in Chinese (Simplified)

错误, 过错，过失, 责任…

in Spanish

ser culpa de alguien, defecto, fallo…

in Portuguese

ser culpa de alguém, defeito, avaria…

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एक चूक विशेषत: अशी एखादी गोष्ट ज्यासाठी आपण दोषी आहात, एखाद्या व्यक्तीच्या चारित्र्यातील कमकुवतपणा, मशीन किंवा सिस्टममधील तुटलेला भाग किंवा कमकुवतपणा…

欠陥, 欠点, ～を批判する…

yanılgı, hata, kusur…

faute [feminine], défaut [masculine], faille [feminine]…

defecte, criticar, trobar defectes a…

schuld, gebrek, breuk…

ஒரு தவறு, குறிப்பாக நீங்கள் செய்யாத குற்றத்திற்கு உங்கள் மேல் சுமத்தப்படும் ஒன்று, ஒரு நபரின் தன்மையில் ஒரு பலவீனம்…