different between fail vs ace

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: f?l, IPA^(key): /fe?l/
• Rhymes: -e?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English failen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman faillir, from Vulgar Latin *fallire, alteration of Latin fallere (“to deceive, disappoint”), from Proto-Indo-European *b??l- (“to lie, deceive”) or Proto-Indo-European *sg??h?el- (“to stumble”). Compare Dutch feilen, falen (“to fail, miss”), German fehlen (“to fail, miss, lack”), Danish fejle (“to fail, err”), Swedish fela (“to fail, be wanting, do wrong”), Icelandic feila (“to fail”), Spanish fallar (“to fail, miss”).

Verb

fail (third-person singular simple present fails, present participle failing, simple past and past participle failed)

1. (intransitive) To be unsuccessful.
2. (transitive) Not to achieve a particular stated goal. (Usage note: The direct object of this word is usually an infinitive.)

3. (transitive) To neglect.

4. (intransitive) Of a machine, etc.: to cease to operate correctly.

5. (transitive) To be wanting to, to be insufficient for, to disappoint, to desert.
   • 1843, Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, book 3, ch. II, Gospel of Mammonism

     A poor Irish Widow […] went forth with her three children, bare of all resource, to solicit help from the Charitable Establishments of that City. At this Charitable Establishment and then at that she was refused; referred from one to the other, helped by none; — till she had exhausted them all; till her strength and heart failed her: she sank down in typhus-fever […]
6. (transitive, intransitive) To receive one or more non-passing grades in academic pursuits.

7. (transitive) To give a student a non-passing grade in an academic endeavour.

8. (transitive, obsolete) To miss attaining; to lose.
9. To be wanting; to fall short; to be or become deficient in any measure or degree up to total absence.
10. (archaic) To be affected with want; to come short; to lack; to be deficient or unprovided; used with of.
    • 1757, Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

      If ever they fail of beauty, this failure is not to be attributed to their size.

11. (archaic) To fall away; to become diminished; to decline; to decay; to sink.
12. (archaic) To deteriorate in respect to vigour, activity, resources, etc.; to become weaker.

13. (obsolete) To perish; to die; used of a person.
14. (obsolete) To err in judgment; to be mistaken.
15. To become unable to meet one's engagements; especially, to be unable to pay one's debts or discharge one's business obligation; to become bankrupt or insolvent.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb which takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs

Alternative forms

• faile (obsolete)
• fayle (obsolete)

Synonyms

• (to be unsuccessful): fall on one's face
• (to receive non-passing grades in academic pursuits): flunk (US)

Antonyms

• (to be unsuccessful): succeed

Derived terms

• failure
• fail-safe
• words fail someone

Related terms

• default
• fallacy
• false
• fault

Translations

Noun

fail (countable and uncountable, plural fails)

1. (uncountable, slang) Poor quality; substandard workmanship.

2. (slang) A failure (condition of being unsuccessful)
3. (slang, US) A failure (something incapable of success)
4. A failure, especially of a financial transaction (a termination of an action).
5. A failing grade in an academic examination.

Derived terms

Adjective

fail (comparative more fail, superlative most fail)

1. (slang, US) That is a failure.

Etymology 2

Unknown. Compare Scottish Gaelic fàl (“hedge”), Scots faill (“turf”). Attested from the 16th century.

Alternative forms

• feal

Noun

fail (plural fails)

1. A piece of turf cut from grassland.

Derived terms

• fail and divot

References

• fail in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fail in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• fail at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• -afil, alif, fila

Indonesian

Etymology

From English file, from Old French fil (“thread”), from Latin filum (“thread”). Compare to Malay fail.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?fa?l]
• Hyphenation: fa?il

Noun

fail

1. file,
   1. a collection of papers collated and archived together.

      Synonyms: berkas, dokumen

   2. (computing) an aggregation of data on a storage device, identified by a name.
2. file rack

Further reading

• “fail” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Irish

Etymology

From Old Irish foil, from Proto-Celtic *wali-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel-. Cognates include Ancient Greek ???? (hélix, “something twisted”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?al?/

Noun

fail f (genitive singular faile, nominative plural faileanna)

1. ring
2. bracelet
3. wreath
4. sty

Declension

Mutation

Malay

Etymology

From English file.

Noun

fail (plural fail-fail)

1. file (collection of papers)
2. information or a document about someone, something etc.
3. (computing) file (aggregation of data on a storage device)

Derived terms

• pemfailan (the process of filing)
• berfail-fail (a lot of files)

Verb

fail (used in the form memfailkan)

1. file (commit papers)
2. file (to archive)
3. (computing) file (store computer data)
4. (with untuk) file (make a formal request)

Old Irish

Verb

fail

1. Alternative form of fil

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?s, IPA^(key): /e?s/
• Rhymes: -e?s

Etymology 1

From Middle English as, from Old French as, from Latin as, assis (“unity, copper coin, the unit of coinage”). Doublet of as. Likely related or deriving ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h?é??s.

Noun

ace (plural aces)

1. (card games, dice games) A single point or spot on a playing card or die.

   Synonym: pip

2. (card games, dice games) A card or die face so marked.

3. The ball marked with the number 1 in pool and related games.
   • 1961, The Hustler (film): a character is calling his next shot

     Ace in the corner.

4. A very small quantity or degree; a particle; an atom; a jot.
   • c. 1658 Dr. Henry More, Government of the Tongue :

     He will not bate an ace of absolute certainty.
5. (tennis) A serve won without the opponent hitting the ball.
6. (sports) A single point won by a stroke, as in handball, rackets, etc.
7. (US) (baseball) The best pitcher on the team.
8. (US) (baseball, dated, 19th century) A run.
9. (US) (golf, disc golf) A hole in one.
10. (sometimes attributive) An expert at something.
11. A military aircraft pilot who is credited with shooting down many enemy aircraft, typically five or more.
12. (US) A perfect score on a school exam.
13. Any of various hesperiid butterflies.
14. (physics, obsolete) A quark.

Usage notes

• Used as an exclamation to mean "excellent". But see ace (adjective). Also in plural: aces.

Coordinate terms

• (dice, dominoes) deuce, trey, cater, cinque, sice

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

ace (third-person singular simple present aces, present participle acing, simple past and past participle aced)

1. (US) To pass (a test, interviews etc.) perfectly.
2. (tennis) To win a point by an ace.
3. (golf) To make an ace (hole in one).

Synonyms

• (to pass a test): pass with flying colours

Derived terms

• ace it
• ace out

Translations

Adjective

ace (comparative more ace, superlative most ace)

1. (Britain, slang) Excellent.

   Synonyms: excellent, first-rate, outstanding

Usage notes

• Used as exclamation. Also see ace (noun) above and aces.

Translations

See also

Etymology 2

From asexual by shortening.

Adjective

ace (comparative more ace, superlative most ace)

1. (slang) Asexual. (not experiencing sexual attraction)
   • 2009, Anneli Rufus, "Asexuals at the Pride Parade", Psychology Today, 22 June 2009:

     "Some people who identify as ace fall under the GLBT umbrella while many others do not. Members of the queer movement have reached out to asexuals to include them in their community. The acronym for this has now become GLBTQA (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and asexual)."

   • 2010, Amy Ebersole, "Asexuality, not to be confused with celibacy", The Daily Aztec (San Diego State University), 25 January 2010:

     “I was 14 when I first realized I had no interest in sex,” Jed Strohm, a happily satisfied, romantic asexual from upstate New York, said. “I identified as ace (asexual) and the group leader said I was too attractive.”

   • 2013, Andrea Garcia-Vargas, "Ourselves, our sex, our choices", The Eye, 28 March 2013:

     “If you identify as ace [asexual] and you just don’t feel like having sex, then for me, sex-positive means, ‘That’s great! It’s fantastic you don’t want to have sex!’” says McGown.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:ace.

   Synonym: (slang) asexy

Derived terms

• acephobia

Noun

ace (plural aces)

1. (slang) A person who is asexual.
   • 2012, Tasmin Prichard, "Freedom from Desire: Some Notes on Asexuality", Salient (Victoria University of Wellington), 23 July 2012, page 20:

     Asexuals are programmed differently, like anybody else on the LGBTQXYZ spectrum, but difference is cool! Difference is perhaps the best part of being queer. Own it, aces!

   • 2013, Leigh Miller, "(A)Sexual Healing", Jerk (Syracuse University), Volume XII, Issue V, April 2013, page 23:

     Negativity toward asexuality can make emerging aces fear that something is wrong with them.

   • 2014, Emma Ianni, "New Group to Bring Awareness Of C. U. Asexual Community", The Cornell Daily Sun (Cornell University), Volume 130, Number 81, 4 February 2014, page 1:

     G. F. said she came up with the idea of creating an asexual group last semester, when she was struggling with the way being an ace was affecting her personal life.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:ace.

See also

• (aromantic): aro

Anagrams

• AEC, CAE, CEA, Cea, EAC

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s/, /?js/

Noun

ace m (plural aces)

1. (tennis) ace

Further reading

• “ace” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Indonesian

Etymology

• From Hokkien or Teochew of ?? (â-chè, â-che, “elder sister”).
• From Cantonese or Teochew of ?? (“elder sister”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?at???]
• Hyphenation: acê

Noun

ace (plural ace-ace, first-person possessive aceku, second-person possessive acemu, third-person possessive acenya)

1. elder sister in Chinese communities.
2. a term of address to Chinese woman.

Further reading

• “ace” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Italian

Etymology

From the names of vitamins A, C and E, contained in the juice.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?at.?e/

Noun

ace m (plural ace)

1. (cooking) a flavour of fruit juice, mainly formed by orange, carrot and lemon juice.

   Synonym: ACE

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /?a.ke?/, [?äke?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /?a.t??e/, [???t???]

Verb

ac?

1. second-person singular present active imperative of ace?

Portuguese

Noun

ace m (plural aces)

1. (tennis) ace (tennis: point scored without the opponent hitting the ball)

Romanian

Noun

ace

1. plural of ac

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [es]
• (Mid Northern) IPA^(key): [is]

Noun

ace (plural aces)

1. The smallest possible amount of something.
2. The best of a class of things.

References

• Eagle, Andy, ed. (2016) The Online Scots Dictionary, Scots Online.

Spanish

Noun

ace m (plural aces)

1. (tennis) ace (point scored without the opponent hitting the ball)