Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use malfunction in a sentence

26 example sentences · noun, verb

Malfunction means faulty functioning. Example: “She told him the machine was poorly built, but they both knew that she was the one who had malfunctioned.”

Examples of malfunction by meaning

nounFaulty 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...

verbTo 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...
  • 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

More sentences with malfunction

  • Electronic devices are liable to malfunction when exposed to extreme heat.From the entry liable
  • Luckily, the cannoneer was only mildly injured when his cannon malfunctioned.From the entry cannoneer
  • The rocket's malfunction was down to a rounding error in the mathematics of its trajectory guidance.From the entry rounding error
  • Macroshocks are usually the result of malfunctioning equipment.From the entry macroshock
  • During Cytherocentric orbit insertion, Akatsuki malfunctioned and failed to enter orbit.2019, Kattakuri, Vikranth R., Failures in Spacecraft Systems: An Analysis from the Perspective of Decision Making, West Lafayette…. From the entry cytherocentric
  • My father's behaviour showed, shockingly, that personality is just a function, or malfunction, of neurology.2012 August 17, Arifa Akbar, “Dealing with dementia: ‘My dad was treated like lost luggage on a carousel’”, in The Independent, London…. From the entry unseat
  • Broken or malfunctioning electrodes can result in smoke leaking out into the rooms of the structure.2004 July 2, James E. Brumbaugh, Audel HVAC Fundamentals, Volume 2: Heating System Components, Gas and Oil Burners, and Automatic…. From the entry puffback
  • Also, bugs are subject to malfunction and discovery, especially as sophisticated antibug devices have been developed.1991, John C Klotter, Jacqueline R Kanovitz, Constitutional Law, 1992 Supplement. From the entry antibug
  • There are too many malfunctions and failures that can have no other explanation.1963, Arthur C Clarke, chapter 8, in Glidepath, New York: Simon and Schuster, pages 72-73. From the entry gremlin
  • Most RCDs used in the UK aren’t suitable for current flowing in both directions and so could malfunction.2026 April 1, Matthew Sparkes, “Plug-in solar is coming – how dangerous is it and is it worth it? Plug-in solar panels are a cheaper…. From the entry short circuit
  • AI systems will make mistakes, malfunction, or even breakdown.2024 December, Karin Rolanda Jongsma, Martin Sand, Megan Milota, “Why we should not mistake accuracy of medical AI for efficiency”, in NPJ…. From the entry AI drift
  • Further, when we talk about the malfunction of infant reflexes, we do not discuss them from an evolutionary point of view.2002, Valerie Gray Hardcastle, “On the Normativity of Functions”, in André Ariew, Robert Cummins, Mark Perlman, editors, Functions: New…. From the entry misindicate
  • The risk of unauthorized action would be increased, as would the danger of accidental or inadvertent war due to equipment malfunction.1976 May 15, Lewis A. Dunn, Herman Kahn, “Parameters of Nth Country Nuclear-weapon Programs and Postures”, in Trends in Nuclear…. From the entry fail-deadly
  • Does your dog have any of the following diseases such as diabetes, epilepsy, allergies, demodicosis, hypothyroidism, pancreatic insufficiency, liver malfunction, or something else?2015 June 15, Bahman Mosallanejad et al., “Comparative evaluation between hypericin (hypiran) and fluoxetine in treatment of companion…. From the entry demodicosis
  • Monaco, a 23-year-old Argentinian seeded No. 23, survived the most unlikely wardrobe malfunction to save a match point and win a third-set tiebreaker, 8-6.2007 September 4, Kathleen McElroy, “But Wait! Djokovic Is Still Playing”, in New York Times Straight Sets, retrieved 17 Apr 2021. From the entry wardrobe malfunction
  • That is, both the Morrow and the palmomental reflexes can malfunction and they do so by misindicating the state of brain development.2002, Valerie Gray Hardcastle, “On the Normativity of Functions”, in André Ariew, Robert Cummins, Mark Perlman, editors, Functions: New…. From the entry misindicate
  • Thermostats are quite reliable, but may not work because they are misinstalled, fall out of adjustment, need cleaning, or because components malfunction.1996, Gene Schnaser, The Home Repair Emergency Handbook. From the entry misinstall
  • For example, individual bottles may leak chronically, may contaminate the samples being taken, e.g. chlorofluorocarbons, or may consistently mistrip or otherwise malfunction.1994, Requirements for WOCE Hydrographic Programme Data Reporting, page 38. From the entry mistrip
  • The man had "foreign accent syndrome," a rare condition in which a brain malfunction produces speech alterations that sound like a foreign accent.1991, Gerard L. Ervin, “MLJ News & Notes of the Profession”, in The Modern Language Journal, volume 75, number 2, page 225. From the entry foreign accent syndrome
  • He’s developing a databasey sense of humor, and has just reached the brainy-four-year-old level—or he’s malfunctioning in some way, but I can’t put my finger on how.2022, Eileen Gunn, “Night Shift at NanoGobblers”, in Night Shift […] (PM Press Outspoken Authors; 29), Oakland, Calif.: PM Press, →ISBN…. From the entry databasey
  • Sly and the Family Stone sound entirely futuristic – like everyone else they have malfunctioning gear, but they “hurry up and play to avoid hanging you up”.2019 August 15, Bob Stanley, “'Groovy, groovy, groovy': listening to Woodstock 50 years on – all 38 discs”, in The Guardian. From the entry tight as a drum

Meaning of malfunction

  1. noun Faulty functioning.
  2. noun Failure to function.
  3. verb To function improperly.

Full definition of malfunction

Questions about malfunction in a sentence

How do you use malfunction in a sentence?
Malfunction is used as a noun and verb. For example: “She told him the machine was poorly built, but they both knew that she was the one who had malfunctioned.”
What is a short sentence with malfunction?
“Macroshocks are usually the result of malfunctioning equipment.”
What does malfunction mean?
Malfunction means faulty functioning.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: malfunction (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use malfunction in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/malfunction. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.