downfall
/ˈdaʊnfɔːl/
downfall noun: a precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.
Noun
downfall (countable and uncountable, plural downfalls)
- A precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.
- Many economic and political reasons led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.
- The Black Cats contributed to their own downfall for the only goal when Titus Bramble, making his first appearance since Boxing Day, and Michael Turner, let Phil Jones' cross bounce across the six-yard box as [Wayne] Rooney tucked in at the back post.2012 May 13, Alistair Magowan, “Sunderland 0 – 1 Man Utd”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 09 May 2019
- The cause of such a fall; a critical blow or error.
- Orson Scott Card
It is the downfall of evil, that it never sees far enough ahead.
- Orson Scott Card
- An act of falling down.
- a downfall of rain
- [T]he prominent character of leading young lady or heroine, which Paula was to personate, was really the most satisfactory in the whole list for her. For although she was to be wooed hard, there was just as much love-making among the remaining personages; while, as Somerset had understood the play...1880–1881, Thomas Hardy, chapter VII, in A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the De Stancys. A Story of To-day. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], published 1881...
Verb
downfall (third-person singular simple present downfalls, present participle downfalling, simple past downfell, past participle downfallen)
- To fall down; deteriorate; decline.
- [...] wants to make civilization his subject, he will have a hard time proceeding with the sentence unless collapse is in his active vocabulary, for he cannot say "our civilization will downfall" or "fall down."1977, Mina P. Shaughnessy, Errors and expectations: a guide for the teacher of basic writing
- Common belief has been that in the future the number of middle managers will downfall due to empowerment and team-building.1998, Peter Vink, Ernst A. P. Koningsveld, Steven Dhondt, Human factors in organizational design and management-VI
downfall meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
downfall in Hindi
- precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth
- पतन patan, अधोगति adhogti
downfall in Tamil
- வீழ்ச்சி
downfall in Marathi
- downfall, degradation, decline
- पतन patan
downfall in Urdu
- بربادی, تباہی, تنزل, زوال
More languagesFewer languages
- downfall in Bengali
- নিপাত nipat, অধঃপতন odhoḥpoton
- downfall in Malayalam
- പതനം patanaṁ
- downfall in Kannada
- ಪತನ, ಅವನತಿ, ಅಪಜಯ, ಅಧಃಪತನ
- downfall in Thai
- ความพินาศ
Examples of downfall in a sentence
- The downfall of the chairman is an obsession that consumes Laura's time.
- The company's full speed ahead approach to product development would ultimately be its downfall.
- Through subtle manipulations he orchestrated the downfall of his rival.
Synonyms of downfall
Forms of downfall
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | downfalls |
| alternative form (obsolete) | downfal |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | downfalls |
| present participle | downfalling |
| past | downfell |
| past participle | downfallen |
Origin of downfall
From down- + fall. In this spelling, from 16th century; spelled as two words from 13th century.
Words formed from downfall
- down-fallen
- downfallen
- Operation Downfall
- Willsons Downfall
Questions about downfall
- What does downfall mean?
- Downfall means a precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.
- What is downfall in Hindi?
- Downfall in Hindi is पतन (patan), अधोगति (adhogti). See Downfall meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is downfall?
- Downfall can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce downfall?
- Downfall is pronounced /ˈdaʊnfɔːl/.
- What is the plural of downfall?
- The plural of downfall is downfalls.
Words near downfall in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: downfall (page history and authors); downfall (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); पतन (Marathi) (page history and authors); downfall (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); অধঃপতন (Bengali) (page history and authors); downfall (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-downfall.wav.
Cite this entry: “downfall.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/downfall. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.