Word.ws English Dictionary

false starts

false starts is the plural of false start.

Meaning of false start

Noun

false start (plural false starts)

  1. The act of an athlete starting a race before being signaled to do so.
    Synonyms:
    jump-start, flyer
  2. The act of an offensive player moving across the line of scrimmage prior to the snap.
  3. An attempt at something that does not work, requiring one to start over.
    • After a "false start" that was too vigorous, overloading the motors, No. D171 made a very successful unassisted run from Tyne Dock to Consett.1962 December, “Motive Power Miscellany: North Eastern Region”, in Modern Railways, page 422

Questions about false starts

What is false starts the plural of?
False starts is the plural of false start.

Words near false starts in the dictionary

  1. false shower
  2. false showers
  3. false signal
  4. false signals
  5. false start
  6. false starts
  7. false step
  8. false steps
  9. false strawberries
  10. false strawberry
  11. false summit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: false starts (page history and authors); false start (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: “false starts.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/false_starts. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.