different between fallback vs downfall

English

Alternative forms

• fall-back

Etymology

From the verb fall back.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f??l.bæk/

Noun

fallback (countable and uncountable, plural fallbacks)

1. An act of falling back.
2. A backup plan or contingency strategy; an alternative which can be used if something goes wrong with the main plan; a recourse.

3. (construction) A reduction in bitumen softening point, sometimes called refluxing or overheating in a relatively closed container.
4. Pulverised material that falls back to earth after a nuclear explosion; fallout.
   • 1970, Nuclear Science Abstracts (page 3595)

     Particle size distributions of fallback and ejecta were determined principally by mechanical sieving and weighing.

Synonyms

• (act of falling back): ebbing, recession, retreat
• (backup plan): back-up/backup, plan B, recourse

Hyponyms

Translations

Adjective

fallback (not comparable)

1. That can be resorted to as a fallback.

   a fallback plan

Synonyms

• alternate/alternative, back-up/backup, secondary

Derived terms

• fallback font

Verb

fallback

1. Misspelling of fall back.

Anagrams

• backfall

English

Etymology

From down- +? fall. In this spelling, from 16th century; spelled as two words from 13th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?da?nf??l/

Noun

downfall (countable and uncountable, plural downfalls)

1. A precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.

   Synonyms: (precipitous decline in fortune) fall, (death or rapid deterioration) doom
2. The cause of such a fall; a critical blow or error.
   • Orson Scott Card

     It is the downfall of evil, that it never sees far enough ahead.

3. An act of falling down.

Derived terms

• Operation Downfall

Translations

Verb

downfall (third-person singular simple present downfalls, present participle downfalling, simple past downfell, past participle downfallen)

1. (intransitive) To fall down; deteriorate; decline.
   • 1998, Peter Vink, Ernst A. P. Koningsveld, Steven Dhondt, Human factors in organizational design and management-VI:

     Common belief has been that in the future the number of middle managers will downfall due to empowerment and team-building.

   • 1998, Lithuanian physics journal:

     It should be noted that the magnitude of satellites decreases when tuning out of degeneracy, and in the wavelength range of 1.2-1.3 pm it downfalls to the value of 10-15% of the main spike magnitude.

Derived terms

• down-fallen, downfallen

Anagrams

• Wolfland, fall down, landfowl