"fail-safe" meaning in English

See fail-safe in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

IPA: /ˈfeɪlˌseɪf/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fail-safe.wav [Southern-England]
enPR: fāl′sāf Head templates: {{en-adj|?}} fail-safe
  1. That does not cause undue damage in the event of failure. Translations (that does not cause undue damage): vikaturvallinen (Finnish), biztonságos (Hungarian), üzembiztos (Hungarian), ишенимдүү (işenimdüü) (Kyrgyz), бекем (bekem) (Kyrgyz), కట్టుదిట్టమైన (kaṭṭudiṭṭamaina) (Telugu), పాడవని (pāḍavani) (Telugu), చెడిపోని (ceḍipōni) (Telugu)
    Sense id: en-fail-safe-en-adj-xOhxuMz5 Disambiguation of 'that does not cause undue damage': 98 2
  2. Designed to shut off for safety if an emergency occurs.
    Sense id: en-fail-safe-en-adj-ayysa6NW
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: fault-tolerant Coordinate_terms: fail-deadly, failsoft

Noun

IPA: /ˈfeɪlˌseɪf/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fail-safe.wav [Southern-England] Forms: fail-safes [plural]
enPR: fāl′sāf Head templates: {{en-noun}} fail-safe (plural fail-safes)
  1. A device, mechanism or measure designed to make something fail-safe. Translations (device or mechanism): fouttolerant (Dutch), turvalaite (english: device) (Finnish), turvamekanismi (english: mechanism) (Finnish), mode dégradé (French), フェイルセーフ (feirusēfu) (Japanese), bezpiecznik [masculine] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-fail-safe-en-noun-fE~XVQG9

Verb

IPA: /ˈfeɪlˌseɪf/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fail-safe.wav [Southern-England] Forms: fail-safes [present, singular, third-person], fail-safing [participle, present], fail-safed [participle, past], fail-safed [past]
enPR: fāl′sāf Head templates: {{en-verb}} fail-safe (third-person singular simple present fail-safes, present participle fail-safing, simple past and past participle fail-safed)
  1. To compensate automatically, in the event of a failure.
    Sense id: en-fail-safe-en-verb-zLZnrKJO
  2. To make a device or mechanism fail-safe, or to add a fail-safe device or mechanism to an existing system. Synonyms: fail safe (english: with differing inflections) Related terms: foolproof
    Sense id: en-fail-safe-en-verb-6g3KUGYC Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 9 20 2 26 42

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for fail-safe meaning in English (6.1kB)

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  "coordinate_terms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "fail-deadly"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "adj",
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      "_dis1": "0 0",
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  ],
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        {
          "text": "The system is failsafe, because everything is backed up automatically."
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        [
          "in the event of",
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
          "word": "vikaturvallinen"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
          "word": "biztonságos"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
          "word": "üzembiztos"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "ky",
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          "roman": "işenimdüü",
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "ky",
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          "_dis1": "98 2",
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "te",
          "lang": "Telugu",
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        },
        {
          "_dis1": "98 2",
          "code": "te",
          "lang": "Telugu",
          "roman": "ceḍipōni",
          "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
          "word": "చెడిపోని"
        }
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          "ref": "1961 February, “Talking of Trains: Automated trains in New York”, in Trains Illustrated, page 78",
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          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Designed to shut off for safety if an emergency occurs."
      ],
      "id": "en-fail-safe-en-adj-ayysa6NW",
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          "Designed",
          "designed"
        ],
        [
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          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "device or mechanism",
          "word": "fouttolerant"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "english": "device",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "device or mechanism",
          "word": "turvalaite"
        },
        {
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          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "device or mechanism",
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          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "device or mechanism",
          "word": "mode dégradé"
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          "sense": "device or mechanism",
          "word": "フェイルセーフ"
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          "tags": [
            "masculine"
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        }
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      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
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      "form": "fail-safed",
      "tags": [
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        "To compensate automatically, in the event of a failure."
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          "_dis": "9 20 2 26 42",
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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        "To make a device or mechanism fail-safe, or to add a fail-safe device or mechanism to an existing system."
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      "id": "en-fail-safe-en-verb-6g3KUGYC",
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 0 100",
          "word": "foolproof"
        }
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          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "english": "with differing inflections",
          "word": "fail safe"
        }
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    "English nouns",
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    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
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      "word": "fail-deadly"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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        {
          "text": "The system is failsafe, because everything is backed up automatically."
        }
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      ],
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    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
      "word": "vikaturvallinen"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
      "word": "biztonságos"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
      "word": "üzembiztos"
    },
    {
      "code": "ky",
      "lang": "Kyrgyz",
      "roman": "işenimdüü",
      "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
      "word": "ишенимдүү"
    },
    {
      "code": "ky",
      "lang": "Kyrgyz",
      "roman": "bekem",
      "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
      "word": "бекем"
    },
    {
      "code": "te",
      "lang": "Telugu",
      "roman": "kaṭṭudiṭṭamaina",
      "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
      "word": "కట్టుదిట్టమైన"
    },
    {
      "code": "te",
      "lang": "Telugu",
      "roman": "pāḍavani",
      "sense": "that does not cause undue damage",
      "word": "పాడవని"
    },
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      "lang": "Telugu",
      "roman": "ceḍipōni",
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      "word": "చెడిపోని"
    }
  ],
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  ],
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}

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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
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        "A device, mechanism or measure designed to make something fail-safe."
      ]
    }
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      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "device or mechanism",
      "word": "fouttolerant"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "device",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "device or mechanism",
      "word": "turvalaite"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "mechanism",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "device or mechanism",
      "word": "turvamekanismi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "device or mechanism",
      "word": "mode dégradé"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "feirusēfu",
      "sense": "device or mechanism",
      "word": "フェイルセーフ"
    },
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      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "device or mechanism",
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        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "bezpiecznik"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "fail-safe"
  ],
  "word": "fail-safe"
}

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    "English adjectives",
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
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      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fail-safed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "fail-safed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
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  "head_templates": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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      "word": "foolproof"
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        "To compensate automatically, in the event of a failure."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "compensate"
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          "failure",
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    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "To make a device or mechanism fail-safe, or to add a fail-safe device or mechanism to an existing system."
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    }
  ],
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      "tags": [
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      "english": "with differing inflections",
      "word": "fail safe"
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  "wikipedia": [
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  ],
  "word": "fail-safe"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.