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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Recent Examples of fail-safes
The team also developed numerous fail-safes to ensure consistent, trustworthy performance.
—
IEEE Spectrum, 26 Sep. 2016
IEEE Spectrum, 26 Sep. 2016
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fail-safes
Noun
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In the face of heavy rain, these precautions can make a significant difference in ensuring your safety on the road.—
Southern California Weather Report,
Daily News,
12 Apr. 2026
-
Lightning can follow conductive pathways, and these precautions reduce the risk of electrical surges.—
Bay Area Weather Report,
Mercury News,
12 Apr. 2026
Noun
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In recent months, Anthropic has seen strong momentum for its AI coding offerings as well as growing traction with consumers amid a standoff with the Pentagon over AI safeguards.—
Bloomberg,
Mercury News,
16 Apr. 2026
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Camie Hubbard lives on Craftmont Avenue in Pittsburgh and claims a mitigation contractor hired by their insurance company tore into their home without proper testing or safeguards in place, exposing them to contaminants like lead and asbestos.—
Erika Stanish,
CBS News,
16 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fail-safes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fail-safes. Accessed 19 Apr. 2026.
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