Fail in Different Languages
Discover 'Fail' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Fail
Afrikaans misluk | ||
Albanian dështoj | ||
Amharic መውደቅ | ||
Arabic فشل | ||
Armenian ձախողվել | ||
Assamese ব্যৰ্থ হোৱা | ||
Aymara jani phuqhaña | ||
Azerbaijani uğursuz | ||
Bambara ka dɛsɛ | ||
Basque huts egin | ||
Belarusian праваліцца | ||
Bengali ব্যর্থ | ||
Bhojpuri फेल | ||
Bosnian propasti | ||
Bulgarian провалят се | ||
Catalan fracassar | ||
Cebuano mapakyas | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 失败 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 失敗 | ||
Corsican falla | ||
Croatian iznevjeriti | ||
Czech selhat | ||
Danish svigte | ||
Dhivehi ނާކާމިޔާބުވުން | ||
Dogri नकाम | ||
Dutch mislukken | ||
English fail | ||
Esperanto malsukcesi | ||
Estonian ebaõnnestuma | ||
Ewe dze anyi | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) mabibigo | ||
Finnish epäonnistua | ||
French échouer | ||
Frisian mislearje | ||
Galician fracasar | ||
Georgian ჩავარდნა | ||
German scheitern | ||
Greek αποτυγχάνω | ||
Guarani meg̃ua | ||
Gujarati નિષ્ફળ | ||
Haitian Creole echwe | ||
Hausa kasa | ||
Hawaiian hāʻule | ||
Hebrew לְהִכָּשֵׁל | ||
Hindi विफल | ||
Hmong swb | ||
Hungarian nem sikerül | ||
Icelandic mistakast | ||
Igbo ida | ||
Ilocano maabak | ||
Indonesian gagal | ||
Irish teip | ||
Italian fallire | ||
Japanese 不合格 | ||
Javanese gagal | ||
Kannada ಅನುತ್ತೀರ್ಣ | ||
Kazakh сәтсіздік | ||
Khmer បរាជ័យ | ||
Kinyarwanda gutsindwa | ||
Konkani अपेशी | ||
Korean 불합격 | ||
Krio fel | ||
Kurdish biserîneçûn | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) شکست | ||
Kyrgyz ийгиликсиз | ||
Lao ລົ້ມເຫລວ | ||
Latin aborior | ||
Latvian neizdoties | ||
Lingala kopola | ||
Lithuanian žlugti | ||
Luganda okugwa | ||
Luxembourgish ausfalen | ||
Macedonian пропадне | ||
Maithili विफल | ||
Malagasy tsy | ||
Malay gagal | ||
Malayalam പരാജയപ്പെടുക | ||
Maltese ifalli | ||
Maori ngoikore | ||
Marathi अपयशी | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯃꯥꯏꯊꯤꯕ | ||
Mizo hlawhchham | ||
Mongolian бүтэлгүйтэх | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ကျရှုံး | ||
Nepali असफल | ||
Norwegian mislykkes | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) lephera | ||
Odia (Oriya) ବିଫଳ | ||
Oromo kufuu | ||
Pashto ناکامي | ||
Persian شکست | ||
Polish zawieść | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) falhou | ||
Punjabi ਫੇਲ | ||
Quechua pantay | ||
Romanian eșua | ||
Russian потерпеть поражение | ||
Samoan toilalo | ||
Sanskrit अनुत्तीर्णः | ||
Scots Gaelic fàilligeadh | ||
Sepedi palelwa | ||
Serbian пропасти | ||
Sesotho hloleha | ||
Shona kukundikana | ||
Sindhi ناڪام | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) අසමත් | ||
Slovak zlyhať | ||
Slovenian ne uspe | ||
Somali guuldareysato | ||
Spanish fallar | ||
Sundanese gagal | ||
Swahili kushindwa | ||
Swedish misslyckas | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) mabigo | ||
Tajik ноком шудан | ||
Tamil தோல்வி | ||
Tatar уңышсызлык | ||
Telugu విఫలం | ||
Thai ล้มเหลว | ||
Tigrinya ምውዳቕ | ||
Tsonga hluleka | ||
Turkish başarısız | ||
Turkmen şowsuz | ||
Twi (Akan) di nkoguo | ||
Ukrainian зазнати невдачі | ||
Urdu ناکام | ||
Uyghur مەغلۇب | ||
Uzbek muvaffaqiyatsiz | ||
Vietnamese thất bại | ||
Welsh methu | ||
Xhosa ukusilela | ||
Yiddish דורכפאַלן | ||
Yoruba kuna | ||
Zulu yehluleka |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The Afrikaans word "misluk" also means "to miscarry" in the sense of a pregnancy gone wrong. |
| Albanian | The word "dështoj" is derived from the Proto-Albanian root *dēš-, meaning "to fall" or "to be defeated". |
| Amharic | "መውደቅ" also means "to miss intentionally" and "to fail to show up". |
| Arabic | The Arabic term 'فشل' (fail) stems from the root word 'فصل' (to separate), implying a detachment or disconnection from an intended objective. |
| Azerbaijani | Uğursuz, meaning "failure" in Azerbaijani, originates from the ancient Turkish word "uğur" meaning "good fortune" with the negative suffix "-suz" added to it. |
| Basque | A form of the verb "huts egin" is used in "huts egintza" (action of failing) which means "failure". |
| Belarusian | The word "праваліцца" is derived from the Old Belarusian word "праўда" (truth), meaning to fall away from the truth. |
| Bengali | "ব্যর্থ" also means "useless" or "unsuccessful" in Bengali. |
| Bosnian | Bosnian 'propasti' is cognate with Latin 'praeposterus', meaning 'inverted' or 'contrary to nature'. It can also mean 'to pass away' or 'to disappear'. |
| Bulgarian | The word "провалят се" also means "to collapse" or "to cave in." |
| Catalan | The word "fracassar" comes from the Latin "fracassare", meaning "to break in pieces". |
| Cebuano | The Cebuano word "mapakyas" can also mean "to go to waste" or "to be ruined". |
| Chinese (Simplified) | "失败" literally means "loss of power" or "lost strength" in Chinese. |
| Chinese (Traditional) | The four characters comprising the word (失, 敗, 成, 功) can be combined in different ways to form the antonym "succeed" (成功). |
| Corsican | "Falla" can have different meanings in Corsican depending on its context, including "lack" and "need". |
| Croatian | "Iznevjere" can also mean "to betray" and derives ultimately from the Latin word for faith. |
| Czech | The verb "selhat" is derived from the word "selh", meaning "debt", and initially referred to a breach of agreement or contract. |
| Danish | 'Forsviga' meaning 'to conceal' is an Old Norse word that has the same root as 'svigte'. |
| Dutch | In some dialects of Dutch "mislukken" does not only mean "to fail", but also to "fall down". |
| Esperanto | The word "malsukcesi" is derived from the Latin words "mal" (bad) and "succi" (to follow), meaning "to follow badly" or "to fail to achieve one's goal." |
| Estonian | The word "ebaõnnestuma" in Estonian is derived from the words "õnn" (luck) and "estuma" (to become), meaning "to become unlucky" or "to fail." |
| Finnish | "Epäonnistua" shares its origins with "onnistua" (succeed), possibly referring to the concept of not reaching the desired outcome. |
| French | Échouer, meaning 'to run aground', derives from the Old French word 'eschouer', meaning 'to strike'. |
| Frisian | Mislearje, the Frisian word for "fail," derives from the Old Frisian "mislearja," meaning "to hinder" or "to impede." |
| Galician | Fracás, palabra de origen portugués que significa 'ruina', llegó a Galiza a través del intercambio comercial entre ambos países. |
| Georgian | The Georgian word "ჩავარდნა" can also mean "falling down" or "failing to achieve something". |
| German | The word 'Scheitern' derives from the Middle High German word 'schîte', meaning 'log', and originally referred to the act of a ship running aground. |
| Greek | The Greek word αποτυγχάνω is derived from the combination of the prefix apo- (away, from) and the verb τυγχάνω (to hit, to obtain), thus literally meaning 'to miss the mark' or 'to not attain' something. |
| Gujarati | In Gujarati, the word "નિષ્ફળ" can also refer to a type of vegetable, the bitter gourd. |
| Haitian Creole | The word "echwe" in Haitian Creole originates from the French word "échouer," meaning "to run aground," and is often used figuratively to describe failure in various contexts. |
| Hausa | Hausa "kasa" is also used to mean "to give out, become exhausted, or finish." |
| Hawaiian | Hāʻule also means "to drop, fall, or sink" and "to descend, come down, or come from above" in Hawaiian. |
| Hebrew | "לְהִכָּשֵׁל" can also mean "to stumble" or "to be ensnared". |
| Hindi | "विफल" is derived from Sanskrit "vi (वि)", meaning "apart" or "dis", and "phal (फल)", meaning "result" or "fruit", implying a lack of desired outcome. |
| Hmong | The word "swb" in Hmong has an alternate meaning of "to be unskillful at a task". |
| Hungarian | "Nem sikerül" (fail) is derived from the Proto-Uralic root *nek-, meaning 'to die' or 'to be lost'. |
| Icelandic | "Mistakast" can also mean "to get lost" or "to go astray". |
| Igbo | The morpheme 'ida' also has the connotation of 'to be unable' and is related to the word 'ada' (inability, helplessness). |
| Indonesian | The word "gagal" in Indonesian has the alternate meaning of "misfire". |
| Irish | In Irish, the verb "teip" has an alternate meaning of "to be fitting or appropriate" |
| Italian | "Fallire" comes from Latin "fallere" meaning "to deceive", a meaning which survives in Italian idioms like "falla il colpo" "to miss the shot". |
| Japanese | "不合格" (fail) literally means "not (不) qualified (合格)". |
| Javanese | "Gagel" in Javanese also means "to be unable to reach" or "to be out of reach." |
| Kannada | The word "ಅನುತ್ತೀರ್ಣ" comes from the Sanskrit word "anuttirna" and means literally "not crossed over" or "unresolved". |
| Kazakh | The word "сәтсіздік" literally means "the state of being unsuccessful" |
| Khmer | បរាជ័យ (bɔːraːcɔːy) derives from Sanskrit "parajaya," meaning "defeat, loss, failure," and also connotes "abandonment, relinquishment," or "giving up." |
| Korean | "불합격" can also mean "unqualified" or "disqualified". |
| Kurdish | The word "biserîneçûn" in Kurdish means "to fail" and is derived from the Persian word "ser", meaning "head" and "neck". |
| Kyrgyz | The word "ийгиликсиз" in Kyrgyz also means "unsuccessful" or "ineffective". |
| Latin | ABORIOR, in Latin, also means to "come to light, to appear". |
| Latvian | "Neizdoties" comes from the verb "darīt" ("to do") and the negative particle "ne-", suggesting an absence of doing. |
| Lithuanian | (Žlugti) is also a Lithuanian verb meaning "to drown". Both "žlugti" forms are related to the sound of water.} |
| Luxembourgish | The German word "ausfallen" has a secondary meaning in Luxembourgish, which is "to take a break from work or school for a short period of time". |
| Macedonian | The verb "пропадне" also has a meaning of "to disappear" or "to get lost." |
| Malagasy | The Malagasy word "tsy" can also mean "not" or "without". |
| Malay | The word 'gagal' also means 'stutter' and is related to the word 'gagap' meaning 'stammer'. |
| Maltese | "Ifalli" in Maltese derives from the Arabic word "fa'ala" meaning "he did" or "he made." |
| Maori | Ngoikore can also mean 'to be absent' or 'to be lacking'. |
| Marathi | The word "अपयशी" is derived from the Sanskrit word "अपयश," which means "disgrace" or "dishonor." |
| Mongolian | The Mongolian word "бүтэлгүйтэх" is derived from the word "бүтэл" meaning "work" or "completion" and the suffix "-гүй" meaning "without" or "lacking". |
| Myanmar (Burmese) | The word "ကျရှုံး" (fail) in Myanmar (Burmese) is derived from the Pali word "kira", meaning "to lose" or "to fall". It can also refer to a physical or mental defeat or setback. |
| Nepali | The Nepali word 'असफल', while typically meaning 'to fail', can also refer to 'to get tired' or 'to be exhausted'. |
| Norwegian | Mislykkes is a compound word formed from the words "miss" (to not hit or achieve something) and "lykkes" (to succeed). |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word 'lephera' is also used to mean 'lose' or 'miss' in Nyanja. |
| Pashto | In Pashto, "ناکامي" not only means "fail" but also refers to a "loss" or a "defeat." |
| Persian | The Persian word "شکست" (fail) is also used to mean "defeat" or "damage." |
| Polish | The word "zawieść" originates from the Proto-Slavic word *vьsti, meaning "to hang" or "to be suspended". This suggests that the original meaning of the word may have been "to leave someone hanging" or "to let someone down". This meaning still persists in some contexts, particularly in the phrase "zawieść kogoś na lodzie" (literally, "to leave someone on the ice"), meaning to abandon someone in a difficult situation. |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "falhou" in Portuguese comes from the Latin word "fallere", meaning "to deceive" or "to be mistaken". |
| Punjabi | The word "ਫੇਲ" in Punjabi also means "to be separated" or "to be apart", implying a deviation from an expected path or unity. |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "eșua" comes from the French word "échouer", meaning "to run aground" or "to fail". The original Latin word, "exagere", meant "to lead out" or "to carry away". |
| Russian | The word "потерпеть поражение" literally means "to suffer defeat" in Russian. |
| Samoan | The word "toilalo" in Samoan is derived from the words "to" (to do) and "'ala'ala" (failure), referring to something that was undertaken but resulted in failure. |
| Scots Gaelic | The Gaelic word "fàilligeadh" is derived from the Proto-Celtic root *φel-, meaning "to fall short, to betray". It is also cognate with the Welsh word "ffalli" and the Irish word "fáil". |
| Serbian | "Пропасти" comes from "past" which also means "step" and "pro" which denotes direction, thus, "propasti" initially denoted the action of "stepping forward" |
| Sesotho | "Hlola" is Sesotho for "fail" and comes from the word for "examine". |
| Shona | The word "kukundikana" in Shona can also mean "to be delayed" or "to be prevented from doing something". |
| Sindhi | “ناڪام” was derived from the Persian word “نام کام”, which means unsuccessful. |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | The word "අසමත්" (asamat) is derived from the Sanskrit word "asaṃhata" meaning "unconnected, disintegrated". |
| Slovak | 'Zlyhať' comes from 'zly', meaning 'bad,' and 'hať,' meaning 'obstacle.' |
| Slovenian | The expression 'ne uspe' derives from the verb 'uspeti' and the negating particle 'ne' and it can also mean 'to manage' or 'to achieve'. |
| Spanish | The Spanish word "fallar" also means "to decree" or "to judge". |
| Sundanese | The Sundanese word "gagal" (fail) is also used to describe something that is broken or incomplete. |
| Swahili | "Kushindwa" is derived from the verb "shinda" (to die) and it connotes the idea of "losing out" or "falling short of one's goals". |
| Swedish | Misslyckas, from Middle Dutch 'miss-lucken' (to not succeed) is also the origin for the German 'misslingen', the English 'misluck', and the French 'mal réussir'. |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | The word "mabigo" can also mean "to be unable to achieve something" or "to be disappointed". |
| Tajik | The word "ноком шудан" in Tajik also means "to get sick" |
| Tamil | 'தோல்வி' ('thOlvi') also means 'skin' in Tamil, which is interesting because the word for 'fail' in many other languages is also related to the idea of 'losing skin' or 'falling down' |
| Telugu | In Telugu, "విఫలం" also means "cessation," "destruction," and "annihilation." |
| Thai | The word "ล้มเหลว" can also mean "fall apart" or "be damaged" in Thai. |
| Turkish | "Başarısız" originates from the Arabic word "başar" (success), meaning "failed success." |
| Ukrainian | The word "зазнати невдачі" in Ukrainian literally translates to "to undergo a failure," implying a more passive experience than the active "fail" in English. |
| Urdu | The word 'ناکام' has additional meanings in Urdu including 'unsuccessful' and 'incomplete'. |
| Uzbek | The word "muvaffaqiyatsiz" in Uzbek shares its root with the Persian word "muvaffaq" meaning "success", and thus literally means "lack of success". |
| Vietnamese | The word "Thất bại" literally translates to "lost battle" in English, highlighting its connection to the struggle and defeat in a battle. |
| Welsh | The word "methu" can also mean "to cease" or "to finish" in Welsh. |
| Xhosa | "Ukusila" in Xhosa additionally means to forget or be unable to remember something. |
| Yiddish | In Yiddish, "דורכפאַלן" can also refer to a "disaster" or "fiasco". |
| Yoruba | Kuna in Yoruba means 'to miss the mark,' which aligns with its meaning of 'fail' in English. |
| Zulu | According to Nguni etymology, 'yehluleka' also means 'to come loose,' as is the case with a knot, the grip on something, or a bond. |
| English | Fail derives from Latin ‘fallere’ (to deceive) and was first used figuratively in the late 1500s |