fault

Meanings

• a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention
  • "I could understand his English in spite of his grammatical faults"
• an imperfection in an object or machine
• the quality of being inadequate or falling short of perfection
  • "he knew his own faults much better than she did"
• (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other
  • "they built it right over a geological fault"
  • "he studied the faulting of the earth's crust"
• (electronics) equipment failure attributable to some defect in a circuit (loose connection or insulation failure or short circuit etc.)
  • "it took much longer to find the fault than to fix it"
• responsibility for a bad situation or event
  • "it was John's fault"
• (sports) a serve that is illegal (e.g., that lands outside the prescribed area)
  • "he served too many double faults"
• put or pin the blame on

Synonyms

blame, break, defect, demerit, error, faulting, flaw, fracture, geological fault, mistake, shift