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
  • Take these precautions during water activities Swimmers, particularly those in southern states and warm coastal waters, should expect a minimal risk of contracting a pathogen in warm freshwater lakes, rivers, brackish waters and hot springs.
    Janet Loehrke, USA Today, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated the reopening on Monday morning, and her administration outlined precautions to beat back the outbreak.
    Abraham Tellez, Los Angeles Times, 25 Aug. 2026
Noun
  • The incident, along with subsequent episodes disclosed by Anthropic and Meta, sparked an industry-wide push to slow development of frontier AI models to improve safeguards keeping autonomous agents under human control.
    Corbin Bolies, Variety, 3 Sep. 2026
  • My daughter is what those statistics look like when government safeguards fail.
    Nicole Russell, USA Today, 3 Sep. 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 5 Sep. 2026.

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