faillir

\fa.jiʁ\

/\fa.jiʁ\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“faillir” is uncommon French (frequency #53,949 among 3,276 “F” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#53,949
frequency rank, French
3,276
“F” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ne pas tenir le coup.

Corpus desk

Index FR-faillir · faillir · French

faillir · rank #53,949 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #53,949
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,276
  • PHOTO-FINISH façonnés

Nearest frequency peer: façonnés (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « faillir »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « faillir » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for faillir
PropertyValue
Headwordfaillir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\fa.jiʁ\
Letters7
Frequency rank#53,949
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « faillir » en français

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.faillirtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « façonnés » (#53,950), « extenso » (#53,947), « fenton » (#53,951). Parmi 3,276 lemmes en « F », « faillir » est au #53,949. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

faillir is uncommon French at frequency #53,949 among 3,276 “F” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \fa.jiʁ\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 8 senses are on record.

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for faillir, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable French rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is faillir, spelled F-A-I-L-L-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ne pas tenir le coup.
  2. 2
    Faire preuve de manquement.
  3. 3
    Manquer à son devoir conjugal.
  4. 4
    Manquer, faire défaut.
  5. 5
    Céder, devenir faible.
  6. 6
    Manquer à exécuter, à faire une chose.
  7. 7
    (Suivi d'un infinitif) N’être pas loin de faire quelque chose, y manquer de peu. → voir raser de
  8. 8
    Se tromper, se méprendre sur quelque chose.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how faillir appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Faillir à son devoir.
  2. Cette armé à qui on a arraché ses écussons, ses galons, cassée, dégradée comme un officier qui aurait failli à l’honneur, elle porte, sur son visage décoloré, la colère du plus faible à qui on a tout pris.

This word in other languages

fail(English)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "faillir"?
"faillir" is spelled F-A-I-L-L-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \fa.jiʁ\.
What does "faillir" mean?
As a verb, "faillir" means: Ne pas tenir le coup.
How do you pronounce "faillir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "faillir" is \fa.jiʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "faillir" come from?
"faillir" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "faillir", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

extenso#53,947Ferland#53,952fichtre#53,957fingers#53,958

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list