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say it: FAY-lyur
failure is a noun meaning "an act that fails". It is pronounced /ˈfeɪljɚ/ — FAY-lyur. It carries 7 recorded senses.
an act that fails
“his failure to pass the test”
lack of success
“he felt that his entire life had been a failure”
“that year there was a crop failure”
a person with a record of failing; someone who loses consistently
an unexpected omission
“he resented my failure to return his call”
“the mechanic's failure to check the brakes”
inability to discharge all your debts as they come due
“the company had to declare bankruptcy”
“fraudulent loans led to the failure of many banks”
loss of ability to function normally
“kidney failure”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for failure come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.