Word.ws English Dictionary

failson

failson noun: an incompetent, unsuccessful middle- or upper-class man who is protected from economic duress by his family's wealth or influence.

Noun

failson (plural failsons)

  1. (Internet, derogatory) An incompetent, unsuccessful middle- or upper-class man who is protected from economic duress by his family's wealth or influence.
    • Coordinate term: faildaughter
    • This is the thread for Failsons. We are disappointments to our families, burdens on societies, and NOT jealous of our older sibling's nice houses and luxury automobiles.2012 November 20, Haoma, “Failson Hangout”, in The Something Awful Forums / FYAD, archived from the original on 19 Jul 2013

Examples of failson in a sentence

  • For white, middle-class, male, useless people—who have just enough family context to not be crushed by poverty—they become failsons.2016 November 18, Jia Tolentino, “What Will Become of the Dirtbag Left?”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2018:
  • But that is how it went for family failsons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. on Tuesday.2017 June 7, Gary Legum, “Trump family grift is getting worse: Eric and Donald Jr. resurface with a discount hotel scam”, in Salon...
  • Zimbabwe’s people suffer while the spoiled failsons of the elite floss on the ’gram.2017 December 5, Benjamin Fogel, “Why Do So Many Western Leftists Defend Robert Mugabe?”, in Jacobin, archived from the original on 30 Sep...
  • [T]he white nationalism of internet failsons is like the allegiance to an imaginary caliphate that motivated the terrorists whose depredations helped get Trump elected in the first place.2019 August 6, Ross Douthat, “The Nihilist in Chief”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020:

Forms of failson

pluralfailsons

Origin of failson

Compound of fail + son.

Questions about failson

What does failson mean?
Failson means an incompetent, unsuccessful middle- or upper-class man who is protected from economic duress by his family's wealth or influence.
How do you use failson in a sentence?
For white, middle-class, male, useless people—who have just enough family context to not be crushed by poverty—they become failsons.
What part of speech is failson?
Failson is a noun.
What is the plural of failson?
The plural of failson is failsons.

Words near failson in the dictionary

  1. failsafe
  2. failsafed
  3. failsafes
  4. failsafing
  5. failsoft
  6. failson
  7. failsons
  8. Failsworth
  9. failtastic
  10. failure
  11. failure drill

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: failson (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)-Flame, not lame-failson.wav.

Cite this entry: “failson.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/failson. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.