Word.ws English Dictionary

failsafe

failsafe is the alternative form of fail-safe.

Meaning of fail-safe

Adjective

fail-safe

  1. That does not cause undue damage in the event of failure.
    • The system is failsafe, because everything is backed up automatically.
  2. Designed to shut off for safety if an emergency occurs.
    • All equipment is, of course, of "fail-safe" pattern.1961 February, “Talking of Trains: Automated trains in New York”, in Trains Illustrated, page 78

See all 5 meanings of fail-safe

Forms of failsafe

Noun
pluralfailsafes
Verb
third-person singular presentfailsafes
present participlefailsafing
past participlefailsafed
pastfailsafed

Questions about failsafe

What is failsafe the alternative form of?
Failsafe is the alternative form of fail-safe.

Words near failsafe in the dictionary

  1. fails safe
  2. fails up
  3. fails up the ladder
  4. fails upward
  5. fails upwards
  6. failsafe
  7. failsafed
  8. failsafes
  9. failsafing
  10. failsoft
  11. failson

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: failsafe (page history and authors); fail-safe (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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Cite this entry: “failsafe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/failsafe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.