See words fail someone in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for words fail someone meaning in English (5.6kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "words fail someone",
"tags": [
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"third-person"
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},
{
"form": "words failing someone",
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"participle",
"present"
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{
"form": "words failed someone",
"tags": [
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"form": "words failed someone",
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"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"words"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
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{
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1857 September, “Seeing the World”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XV, number LXXXVIII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, 327 to 335 Pearl Street, Franklin Square, page 544, column 1",
"text": "Nature has given me the passion for poesy, but refused me the boon of words and the faculty of expressing my thoughts. I think deeply, but when I wish to speak words fail me. If I wish to write, it is still worse.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1882, Mrs. Oliphant [i.e., Margaret Oliphant], “Lady Jane”, in Good Words, volume XXIII, →OCLC, chapter VIII (The Decisive Moment), page 202",
"text": "Here he paused, so bewildered by the dignified unconsciousness and serene superiority of the potentate in whose presence he stood that words failed him, and he stood and gazed at that immovable countenance with a sort of appalled wonder to think that anything should be so great yet so small, so capable of making himself ridiculous, and yet with power to spoil two lives at his pleasure.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Belinda Castles, “Flora: Sydney, 2005”, in Hannah & Emil, Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, page 9",
"text": "As she looked through more and more of these sheets, and found that they could be clustered, ordered, she realised with a start that the spaces were gaps in Hannah's memory of language, marking the beginning of her words failing her. Did she see that for herself? Did she write faster against the spreading of the gaps?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017 August 20, “Observer editorial: The Observer view on the attacks in Spain: We must not give into fatalism on terror”, in The Observer, London, archived from the original on 2017-09-16",
"text": "Many survivors tried to describe what they felt, but words failed them. Hard to imagine, too, the emotions of the first responders – the ambulance crews, the medics and the police – faced by ghastly mayhem. It must have felt overwhelming, but they did their jobs and doubtless saved many lives.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Of a person: to be incapable of describing something with words, especially due to fear, shock, or surprise."
],
"id": "en-words_fail_someone-en-verb-b4UQq~k4",
"links": [
[
"incapable",
"incapable"
],
[
"describing",
"describe"
],
[
"words",
"word#Noun"
],
[
"fear",
"fear#Noun"
],
[
"shock",
"shock#Noun"
],
[
"surprise",
"surprise#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic) Of a person: to be incapable of describing something with words, especially due to fear, shock, or surprise."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "at a loss for words"
},
{
"word": "lost for words"
}
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "sanat eivät riitä (kertomaan)"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"tags": [
"present",
"with-dative"
],
"word": "ręce opadają"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"tags": [
"past",
"with-dative"
],
"word": "ręce opadły"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "nutku tutulmak"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "ne diyeceğini bilememek"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "neye uğradığını şaşırmak"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "anlatacak kelime bulamamak"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "anlatacak söz bulamamak"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈwɜːdz feɪl ˈsʌmwʌn/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈwɝdz feɪl ˈsʌmˌwʌn/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-au-words fail someone.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7a/En-au-words_fail_someone.ogg/En-au-words_fail_someone.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/En-au-words_fail_someone.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "words fail someone"
}
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "words fail someone",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "words failing someone",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
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},
{
"form": "words failed someone",
"tags": [
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"past"
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},
{
"form": "words failed someone",
"tags": [
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}
],
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"name": "en-verb"
}
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],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "at a loss for words"
},
{
"word": "lost for words"
}
],
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"English terms with audio links",
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"English terms with quotations",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1857 September, “Seeing the World”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume XV, number LXXXVIII, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, 327 to 335 Pearl Street, Franklin Square, page 544, column 1",
"text": "Nature has given me the passion for poesy, but refused me the boon of words and the faculty of expressing my thoughts. I think deeply, but when I wish to speak words fail me. If I wish to write, it is still worse.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1882, Mrs. Oliphant [i.e., Margaret Oliphant], “Lady Jane”, in Good Words, volume XXIII, →OCLC, chapter VIII (The Decisive Moment), page 202",
"text": "Here he paused, so bewildered by the dignified unconsciousness and serene superiority of the potentate in whose presence he stood that words failed him, and he stood and gazed at that immovable countenance with a sort of appalled wonder to think that anything should be so great yet so small, so capable of making himself ridiculous, and yet with power to spoil two lives at his pleasure.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2012, Belinda Castles, “Flora: Sydney, 2005”, in Hannah & Emil, Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, page 9",
"text": "As she looked through more and more of these sheets, and found that they could be clustered, ordered, she realised with a start that the spaces were gaps in Hannah's memory of language, marking the beginning of her words failing her. Did she see that for herself? Did she write faster against the spreading of the gaps?",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2017 August 20, “Observer editorial: The Observer view on the attacks in Spain: We must not give into fatalism on terror”, in The Observer, London, archived from the original on 2017-09-16",
"text": "Many survivors tried to describe what they felt, but words failed them. Hard to imagine, too, the emotions of the first responders – the ambulance crews, the medics and the police – faced by ghastly mayhem. It must have felt overwhelming, but they did their jobs and doubtless saved many lives.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Of a person: to be incapable of describing something with words, especially due to fear, shock, or surprise."
],
"links": [
[
"incapable",
"incapable"
],
[
"describing",
"describe"
],
[
"words",
"word#Noun"
],
[
"fear",
"fear#Noun"
],
[
"shock",
"shock#Noun"
],
[
"surprise",
"surprise#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(transitive, idiomatic) Of a person: to be incapable of describing something with words, especially due to fear, shock, or surprise."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic",
"transitive"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈwɜːdz feɪl ˈsʌmwʌn/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈwɝdz feɪl ˈsʌmˌwʌn/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"audio": "en-au-words fail someone.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/7/7a/En-au-words_fail_someone.ogg/En-au-words_fail_someone.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/En-au-words_fail_someone.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "sanat eivät riitä (kertomaan)"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"tags": [
"present",
"with-dative"
],
"word": "ręce opadają"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"tags": [
"past",
"with-dative"
],
"word": "ręce opadły"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "nutku tutulmak"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "ne diyeceğini bilememek"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "neye uğradığını şaşırmak"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "anlatacak kelime bulamamak"
},
{
"code": "tr",
"lang": "Turkish",
"sense": "to be incapable of describing something with words",
"word": "anlatacak söz bulamamak"
}
],
"word": "words fail someone"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-30 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (210104c 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.
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