as in to fail
to fail to function or work properly
A software problem is causing the system to malfunction.
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Recent Examples of malfunction
Pro-Palestinian hacker group Dark Storm Team has claimed responsibility for carrying out a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on X, designed to inundate a platform into temporarily malfunctioning.
—
Faisal Kutty, Newsweek, 11 Mar. 2025
Ater can then be seen crossing to another car to speak to the other suspects before turning back and shooting at Marchbanks and Pennington, though detectives believe her gun malfunctioned or jammed, court documents read.
—Ilana Arougheti, Kansas City Star, 8 Apr. 2025
But Minnesota has repeatedly malfunctioned at the most inopportune times.
—Jace Frederick, Twin Cities, 2 Apr. 2025
But during the docking process, several thrusters on the spacecraft’s service module, which are used to move the capsule around in orbit, malfunctioned.
—NBC News, 19 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malfunction
Faisal Kutty, Newsweek, 11 Mar. 2025
Ater can then be seen crossing to another car to speak to the other suspects before turning back and shooting at Marchbanks and Pennington, though detectives believe her gun malfunctioned or jammed, court documents read.
—Ilana Arougheti, Kansas City Star, 8 Apr. 2025
But Minnesota has repeatedly malfunctioned at the most inopportune times.
—Jace Frederick, Twin Cities, 2 Apr. 2025
But during the docking process, several thrusters on the spacecraft’s service module, which are used to move the capsule around in orbit, malfunctioned.
—NBC News, 19 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for malfunction
Recent Examples of Synonyms for malfunction
Verb
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Dix’s conclusion is easily seen in the lives of famous entrepreneurs who failed at various times in their lives.—
Daniel Fusch,
USA Today,
25 Apr. 2025
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Because practices that work in one context may fail in another.—
HEC Paris Insights,
Forbes.com,
24 Apr. 2025
Verb
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That massive battleship bow that crashes on stage, seemingly out of thin air, might put you in mind of Miss Saigon‘s helicopter or The Phantom of the Opera‘s crashing chandelier, but the visual enchantment of Stranger Things makes all those earlier productions seem downright cute.—
Greg Evans,
Deadline,
22 Apr. 2025
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Acharia believes that a cultural wave is about to crash down on the U.S. mainstream, similar to how Korean pop, Latin music and Afrobeats all made an impact on top 40 radio beginning in the late 2010s.—
Jason Lipshutz,
Billboard,
22 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Malfunction.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/malfunction. Accessed 2 May. 2025.
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