malfunction
UK/ˌmælˈfʌŋk.ʃən/
malfunction noun: faulty functioning.
Noun
malfunction (plural malfunctions)
- Faulty functioning.
- This weekend, as videos of robotaxi malfunctions began appearing on social media, opponents say they are seeing their fears realized.2023 August 14, Kari Paul, “Robotaxi breakdowns cause mayhem in San Francisco days after expansion vote”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- A former OceanGate scientific director said the Titan submersible suffered a malfunction six days before imploding in June 2023, killing all five people on board.2024 September 19, Alaa Elassar and Graham Hurley, “Titan submersible malfunctioned days prior to the fatal dive, former scientific director testifies”, in CNN
- Synonyms:
- dysfunction, misfunction
- Failure to function.
Verb
malfunction (third-person singular simple present malfunctions, present participle malfunctioning, simple past and past participle malfunctioned)
- To function improperly.
- She told him the machine was poorly built, but they both knew that she was the one who had malfunctioned.
- Due to a communications error, according to gaming officials, the slot machine malfunctioned and didn’t notify Taylor or casino personnel that he was a winner.2022 February 6, Amanda Jackson, “A slot machine in Las Vegas malfunctioned and didn’t tell a tourist he won. The gaming board tracked him down”, in CNN
- To fail to function.
malfunction meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
malfunction in Tamil
- செயல்பிழை
malfunction in Urdu
- بدعملی, خرابی
malfunction in Bengali
- স্বাভাবিকভাবে
malfunction in Malayalam
- break down, crash, go wrong
- ശരിയായ രീതിയിൽ പ്രവർത്തിക്കാതിരിക്കുക, പ്രവർത്തനം നിലയ്ക്കുക, ഉദ്ദേശിച്ചപോലെ നടക്കാതിരിക്കുക, പ്രവർത്തനം തകരാറിലാവുക, തകരാറിലാവുക, തകരാറാകുക
- crash, breakdown, fault
- പ്രവർത്തിക്കാതാകൽ, കേട്, പ്രവർത്തനം നില്യ്ക്കൽ, പ്രവർത്തനം തകരാറിലാകൽ, താറുമാറാകൽ, കേടാകൽ
More languagesFewer languages
- malfunction in Kannada
- ಅಸಮರ್ಪಕ ಕೆಲಸ, ಅತೃಪ್ತಿಕರ ಕೆಲಸ, ಅಸಮರ್ಪಕ ಕಾರ್ಯಾಚರಣೆ, ಕೆಟ್ಟುಹೋಗು
- malfunction in Tagalog
- salang-kimot, pagsalang-kimot
- malfunction in Vietnamese
- trục trặc
Examples of malfunction in a sentence
- The group has started collecting reports of malfunctioning, crashing, or dangerous self-driving cars on its website.2023 August 14, Kari Paul, “Robotaxi breakdowns cause mayhem in San Francisco days after expansion vote”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
- A 39-year-old British woman was killed when a malfunctioning ottoman bed fell on her neck and asphyxiated her, a coroner’s report said.2024 October 14, Issy Ronald, “Woman killed by malfunctioning ottoman bed”, in CNN:
Synonyms of malfunction
Forms of malfunction
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | malfunctions |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | malfunctions |
| present participle | malfunctioning |
| past participle | malfunctioned |
| past | malfunctioned |
Origin of malfunction
From mal- (“bad, incorrect”) + function.
Words formed from malfunction
Phrases with malfunction
Words that rhyme with malfunction
Questions about malfunction
- What does malfunction mean?
- Malfunction means faulty functioning.
- What is malfunction in Tamil?
- Malfunction in Tamil is செயல்பிழை. See Malfunction meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use malfunction in a sentence?
- The group has started collecting reports of malfunctioning, crashing, or dangerous self-driving cars on its website.
- What part of speech is malfunction?
- Malfunction can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce malfunction?
- Malfunction is pronounced /ˌmælˈfʌŋk.ʃən/ (UK).
- What is the plural of malfunction?
- The plural of malfunction is malfunctions.
Words near malfunction in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: malfunction (page history and authors); malfunction (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); malfunction (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); malfunction (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); malfunction (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); malfunction (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-malfunction.ogg, en-au-malfunction.ogg.
Cite this entry: “malfunction.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/malfunction. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.