Malfunction

//ˌmælˈfʌŋk.ʃən// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Faulty functioning.

    "This weekend, as videos of robotaxi malfunctions began appearing on social media, opponents say they are seeing their fears realized."

  2. 2
    a failure to function normally wordnet
  3. 3
    Failure to function.
Verb
  1. 1
    To function improperly.

    "She told him the machine was poorly built, but they both knew that she was the one who had malfunctioned."

  2. 2
    fail to function or function improperly wordnet
  3. 3
    To fail to function.

Synonyms

All synonyms
dysfunctionmisfunctionmisfunctionmisoperatemisoperateplay

Example

More examples

"Janet Jackson had a wardrobe malfunction."

Etymology

From mal- (“bad, incorrect”) + function.

Related phrases

malfunction junctionmalfunction routinewardrobe malfunction

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.