Word.ws English Dictionary

fail closed

fail closed verb: of an access control system: to automatically block all traffic in the case of a failure. For example, an electronic safe becoming impossible to unlock in the event of a power outage.

Verb

fail closed (third-person singular simple present fails closed, present participle failing closed, simple past and past participle failed closed)

  1. Of an access control system: to automatically block all traffic in the case of a failure. For example, an electronic safe becoming impossible to unlock in the event of a power outage.
    • Coordinate term: fail open

Forms of fail closed

third-person singular presentfails closed
present participlefailing closed
past participlefailed closed
pastfailed closed

Questions about fail closed

What does fail closed mean?
Fail closed means of an access control system: to automatically block all traffic in the case of a failure. For example, an electronic safe becoming impossible to unlock in the event of a power outage.
What part of speech is fail closed?
Fail closed is a verb.
What is the past tense of fail closed?
The past tense of fail closed is failed closed.

Words near fail closed in the dictionary

  1. Faihriem
  2. faikins
  3. fail
  4. fail and divot
  5. fail at life
  6. fail closed
  7. fail dyke
  8. fail dykes
  9. fail fast
  10. fail of
  11. fail open

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fail closed (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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