GeezerVison is showing en.wiktionary.org — defect - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Etymology
Proto-Indo-European *déh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dʰh₁kyéti Proto-Italic *θakjō Proto-Indo-European *-tus English defect Borrowed from Latin defectus (“a failure, lack”), from deficere (“to fail, lack, literally 'undo'”), from past participle defectus, from de- (“of, from”) + facere (“to do”).
Pronunciation
Noun
defect (plural defects)
- A fault or malfunction.
a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment
1856 February, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Oliver Goldsmith”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:Among boys little tenderness is shown to personal defects.
2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)[1], archived from the original on 15 July 2025:But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.
2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide[2], archived from the original on 10 February 2026, page 4:Another major defect of the current literature dealing with the nomenclature of hybrid forms of English is the scant attention paid to the question of frequency.
- The quantity or amount by which anything falls short.
- (mathematics) A part by which a figure or quantity is wanting or deficient.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Collocations
Adjectives often used with "defect"
- major, minor, serious, cosmetic, functional, critical, fatal, basic, fundamental, main, primary, principal, radical, inherent
Translations
fault or malfunction
- Arabic: خَلَل m (ḵalal), عَيْب m (ʕayb), عَوَار m (ʕawār)
- Armenian: արատ (hy) (arat)
- Assamese: খুঁত (khũt)
- Azerbaijani: qüsur (az), nöqsan (az), naqislik, kəsir
- Basque: akats, oker (eu)
- Belarusian: дэфе́кт m (defjékt), га́на f (hána)
- Bikol:
- Central Bikol: kakundian
- Bulgarian: недоста́тък (bg) m (nedostátăk), повре́да (bg) (povréda), дефе́кт (bg) m (defékt)
- Catalan: defecte (ca) m
- Chichewa: bala
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 缺點 / 缺点 (zh) (quēdiǎn), 問題 / 问题 (zh) (wèntí), 缺陷 (zh) (quēxiàn), 弱點 / 弱点 (zh) (ruòdiǎn), 毛病 (zh) (máobing, máobìng)
- Czech: závada (cs) f, porucha (cs) f, vada (cs) f, defekt (cs) m
- Dutch: gebrek (nl) n, mankement (nl) n
- Estonian: viga, defekt
- Finnish: vika (fi)
- French: défaut (fr) m
- German: Fehler (de) m, Defekt (de) m
- Greek: ελάττωμα (el) n (eláttoma)
- Ancient Greek: ἐλάττωμα n (eláttōma)
- Hebrew: פגם (he) m (pgam)
- Hindi: दोष (hi) m (doṣ), खोट (hi) m (khoṭ)
- Hungarian: hiányosság (hu), rendellenesség (hu), fogyatékosság (hu), hiány (hu), hiba (hu)
- Indonesian: cacat (id)
- Ingrian: defekta
- Italian: difetto (it) m
- Japanese: 欠陥 (ja) (けっかん, kekkan), 欠点 (ja) (けってん, ketten)
- Kazakh: ақау (aqaw)
- Korean: 결함 (ko) (gyeolham)
- Latin: vitium n, menda f
- Macedonian: дефект m (defekt)
- Māori: tōrōkiri
- Persian: عیب (fa) ('eyb), عوار (fa) ('avâr), نقص (fa) (naqs)
- Polish: wada (pl) f, defekt (pl) m, usterka (pl) f
- Portuguese: defeito (pt) m
- Russian: недоста́ток (ru) m (nedostátok), дефе́кт (ru) m (defékt), изъя́н (ru) m (izʺján), брак (ru) m (brak)
- Sanskrit: रपस् (sa) n (rapas) (bodily)
- Scottish Gaelic: cron m
- Serbo-Croatian: defekt (sh) m
- Cyrillic: недостатак m
- Latin: nedostatak (sh) m
- Sikkimese: སྐྱོན (skyon)
- Slovak: vada f, porucha f, defekt m
- Slovene: okvara f, napaka (sl) f
- Spanish: falla (es) f, tacha (es) f, defecto (es) m, desperfecto (es) m
- Swahili: kasoro (sw)
- Telugu: లోపం (lōpaṁ)
- Thai: ข้อบกพร่อง (bòk-prông)
- Turkish: eksik (tr), kusur (tr), hata (tr)
- Ottoman Turkish: ردت (reddet)
- Ukrainian: ґандж (uk) m (gandž), ва́да (uk) f (váda), дефе́кт (uk) m (defékt), хи́ба f (xýba)
- Uzbek: nuqson (uz)
- Vietnamese: tật (vi), lỗi (vi)
- Yiddish: חסרון m (khisorn)
|
amount by which a thing falls short Verb
defect (third-person singular simple present defects, present participle defecting, simple past and past participle defected)
- (intransitive) To abandon or turn against; to cease or change one's loyalty, especially from a military organisation or political party.
2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, “British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party”, in The New York Times[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, retrieved 29 May 2013:Capitalizing on the restive mood, Mr. Farage, the U.K. Independence Party leader, took out an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph this week inviting unhappy Tories to defect. In it Mr. Farage sniped that the Cameron government — made up disproportionately of career politicians who graduated from Eton and Oxbridge — was “run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives.”- (Can we archive this URL?)
- (military) To desert one's army, to flee from combat.
- (military) To join the enemy army.
- (law) To flee one's country and seek asylum.
2015 August 15, Choe Sang-Hun, “A North Korean Defector’s Regret”, in The New York Times[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 9 July 2023:Passing through Thailand, she submitted a handwritten statement agreeing to defect, a requirement for North Korean refugees to be allowed to enter the South.
Derived terms
Translations
to abandon; to change one's loyalty
- Bulgarian: дезерти́рам (bg) impf or pf (dezertíram)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 變節 / 变节 (zh) (biànjié), 叛變 / 叛变 (zh) (pànbiàn)
- Dutch: overlopen (nl), deserteren (nl)
- Esperanto: ribeli
- Finnish: loikata (fi)
- French: déserter (fr), passer à
- Georgian: განდგომა (gandgoma)
- German: überlaufen (de), sich zurückziehen (de), aussteigen (de), desertieren (de)
- Greek: αυτομολώ (el) (aftomoló), αποσκιρτώ (el) (aposkirtó)
- Hebrew: ערק (he) ('aráq)
- Hungarian: elszakad (hu), cserbenhagy (hu), otthagy (hu), elhagy (hu)
- Indonesian: membelot (id)
- Italian: defezionare (it)
- Japanese: 変節する (hensetsu suru)
- Korean: 변절하다 (ko) (byeonjeolhada)
- Latin: dēscīscō
- Māori: whakarere
- Portuguese: trair (pt), desertar
- Russian: изменя́ть (ru) impf (izmenjátʹ), дезерти́ровать (ru) impf or pf (dezertírovatʹ)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: пребјећи
- Latin: prebjeći
- Spanish: desertar (es), pasarse (es)
|
to desert; to flee combat to join the enemy
- Albanian: please add this translation if you can
- Armenian: please add this translation if you can
- Belarusian: please add this translation if you can
- Chechen: please add this translation if you can
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 投敵 / 投敌 (zh) (toúdí)
- Dutch: overlopen (nl)
- Esperanto: transfuĝi
- Estonian: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: loikata (fi)
- French: please add this translation if you can
- Georgian: please add this translation if you can
- German: überlaufen (de)
- Hungarian: átáll (hu), átpártol (hu)
- Japanese: 寝返る (ja) (negaeru)
- Latin: transfugiō
- Latvian: please add this translation if you can
- Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
- Polish: dezerterować (pl) impf, zdezerterować pf
- Romanian: please add this translation if you can
- Russian: переходи́ть на сто́рону проти́вника (perexodítʹ na stóronu protívnika)
- Serbo-Croatian: prebeći, prebjeći
- Slovak: please add this translation if you can
- Slovene: prebegniti
- Turkish: please add this translation if you can
- Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
|
to flee one's country and seek asylum Further reading
- “defect”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “defect”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin dēfectus, dēfectum.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /deːˈfɛkt/
- Hyphenation: de‧fect
- Rhymes: -ɛkt
Adjective
defect (comparative defecter, superlative defectst)
- broken, not working
- Synonyms: kapot, stuk, kaduuk
Declension
Descendants
Noun
defect n (plural defecten, diminutive defectje n)
- a defect
Descendants
Romanian
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin defectus, or borrowed from German Defekt.
Adjective
defect m or n (feminine singular defectă, masculine plural defecți, feminine/neuter plural defecte)
- defective
Declension
Noun
defect n (plural defecte)
- defect
Declension
|