Standard Lemma guide

fail-deadly

adj · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˌfeɪlˈdɛdli/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -ɛdli

1

adj

Meaning 1

Of a nuclear weapons strategy: encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack, even if the command-and-control infrastructure has been damaged by the enemy's first strike.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: government, military, politics, war

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From fail (verb) + deadly, modelled on fail-safe.

Across languages

Translations

7 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: فَشَل قَاتِل (fašal qātil) — encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack
  • Assamese: নষ্ট-ঘাতক (nosto-ghatok) — encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack
  • Chinese Mandarin: 失效致禍 /失效致祸 (shīxiàozhìhuò) — encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack
  • Finnish: vikaantuessa tappava — encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack
  • French: échec mortel — encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack
  • Hebrew: כשל קטלני — encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack
  • Polish: prowadzący do katastrofy — encouraging deterrence by guaranteeing an automatic, immediate, and overwhelming response to an attack