fail-safes

plural of fail-safe
as in precautions
a measure taken to preclude loss or injury there are so many fail-safes built into the system that a highly unlikely series of mistakes would have to be made before failure could occur

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of fail-safes Deeper studies of such events can help manufacturers implement fail-safes to protect solar panels in the future. Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 25 May 2026 The team also developed numerous fail-safes to ensure consistent, trustworthy performance. IEEE Spectrum, 26 Sep. 2016
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fail-safes
Noun
  • Visitors are reminded to take proper precautions — such as bug spray — to ward off the pests.
    Charles Seabrook, AJC.com, 25 July 2026
  • The precautions appear to work; despite wading into swarms of ticks every day for years, Roden-Reynolds has never developed alpha-gal.
    Andy Lewis, HollywoodReporter, 25 July 2026
Noun
  • Given that humans at OpenAI had decided to turn off some safeguards for the test, some have argued the outcome should not have been terribly surprising.
    ABC News, ABC News, 23 July 2026
  • Additional safeguards can slow their work and require more computing resources, creating tension between safety and performance.
    Ethan Baron, Mercury News, 23 July 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Fail-safes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fail-safes. Accessed 27 Jul. 2026.

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