ADJ
- complete, total
- abject, humiliating, ignominious
- The attempt ended in abject failure
- inevitable
- costly
- alleged, apparent, perceived
- evident
- comparative, relative
- initial
- Initial failure was followed by unexpected, if modest, success
- ultimate
- War is the ultimate failure of public communication
- personal
- moral
- academic
- economic, financial
- military
VERB + FAILURE
- be doomed to, end in, result in
- All her efforts were doomed to failure
- admit, confess
- He was too proud to admit failure
- expect
- Children who are doing badly tend to expect failure and criticism
- fear
- avoid
FAILURE + NOUN
- rate
- There is a high failure rate with this treatment
PHRASES
- fear of failure
- Fear of failure should not deter you from trying
- a history of failure
- John had a long history of academic failure
- a possibility/risk of failure, a sense of failure
ADJ
- great, serious
- complete, total, utter
- catastrophic, disastrous
- abject, conspicuous, dismal, humiliating, ignominious, lamentable, miserable
- costly
- heroic
- Her ideas were large: if she could not succeed, she would at least be a heroic failure
- alleged, apparent, perceived
- evident
- comparative, relative
- past
- to learn from past failures
- rare
- The film was one of the rare failures in his career
- unexpected
- personal
- collective
- moral
- academic
- economic, financial
- economic failure and increasing unemployment
- military
VERB + FAILURE
- be, represent
- prove
- The venture proved a costly failure
- feel
- I felt a complete failure
- consider sb/sth, regard sb/sth as
- brand sb/sth, pronounce sb/sth
- Her parents had long since branded her a failure
FAILURE + VERB
- arise from sth
- failures arising from circumstances beyond your control
PREP
- ~ of
- The decision to withdraw funding represents a failure of imagination
ADJ
- fundamental
- general
- manifest
- consistent, constant, continued/ continuing, persistent, repeated
- government, management
- government failure to listen to the voice of the electorate
VERB + FAILURE
- excuse, justify
- seeking to excuse his failure to ask her permission
ADJ
- battery, brake, component, computer, engine, equipment, mechanical, power, system, technical
- bank, business, commercial, company, corporate, market
- Business failures rose by 30% in 2001
- brain, heart, kidney, liver
- crop, harvest
- communication
VERB + FAILURE
- cause, lead to, result in
- a rare viral infection that can lead to heart failure
FAILURE + VERB
- occur
- A power failure occurred between 4 and 5 p.m
PREP
- ~ in
- a failure in the computer system