Outage

//ˈaʊ.tɪd͡ʒ// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A temporary suspension of operation, especially of electrical power supply.

    "[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages."

  2. 2
    a temporary suspension of operation (as of computers) wordnet
  3. 3
    The amount of something lost in storage or transportation.
  4. 4
    the amount of something (as whiskey or oil) lost in storage or transportation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
arrearageblackoutbreakdefalcationdefectdeficiency

Example

More examples

"The fire and power outage resulted in a shortened workday at some exchanges in Manhattan's financial district."

Etymology

From out + -age, on the model of shortage.

Related phrases

power outagesun outagepower cut

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