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say it: fawl
fall is a verb and noun meaning "descend in free fall under the influence of gravity". It is pronounced /ˈfɔl/ — fawl. It carries 44 recorded senses.
descend in free fall under the influence of gravity
“The branch fell from the tree”
“The unfortunate hiker fell into a crevasse”
pass suddenly and passively into a state of body or mind
“fall into a trap”
“She fell ill”
“They fell out of favor”
“Fall in love”
“fall asleep”
“fall prey to an imposter”
“fall into a strange way of thinking”
“she fell to pieces after she lost her work”
die, as in battle or in a hunt
“Many soldiers fell at Verdun”
“Several deer have fallen to the same gun”
“The shooting victim fell dead”
occur at a specified time or place
“Christmas falls on a Monday this year”
“The accent falls on the first syllable”
decrease in size, extent, or range
“The amount of homework decreased towards the end of the semester”
“The cabin pressure fell dramatically”
“her weight fell to under a hundred pounds”
“his voice fell to a whisper”
lose office or power
“The government fell overnight”
“The Qing Dynasty fell with Sun Yat-sen”
to be given by assignment or distribution
“The most difficult task fell on the youngest member of the team”
“The onus fell on us”
“The pressure to succeed fell on the youngest student”
lose one's chastity
“a fallen woman”
to be given by right or inheritance
“The estate fell to the oldest daughter”
fall to somebody by assignment or lot
“The task fell to me”
“It fell to me to notify the parents of the victims”
be inherited by
“The estate fell to my sister”
“The land returned to the family”
“The estate devolved to an heir that everybody had assumed to be dead”
lose an upright position suddenly
“The vase fell over and the water spilled onto the table”
“Her hair fell across her forehead”
drop oneself to a lower or less erect position
“She fell back in her chair”
“He fell to his knees”
assume a disappointed or sad expression
“Her face fell when she heard that she would be laid off”
“his crest fell”
the season when the leaves fall from the trees
“in the fall of 1973”
the lapse of mankind into sinfulness because of the sin of Adam and Eve
“women have been blamed ever since the Fall”
a downward slope or bend
a sudden decline in strength or number or importance
“the fall of the House of Hapsburg”
the act of surrendering (usually under agreed conditions)
“they were protected until the capitulation of the fort”
when a wrestler's shoulders are forced to the mat
a free and rapid descent by the force of gravity
“it was a miracle that he survived the drop from that height”
a sudden sharp decrease in some quantity
“a drop of 57 points on the Dow Jones index”
“there was a drop in pressure in the pulmonary artery”
“a dip in prices”
“when that became known the price of their stock went into free fall”
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 fall 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.