fallible
adjective
Did you know?
“Humanum est errare” is a Latin expression that translates as “To err is human.” Of course, cynics might say that it is also human to deceive. The history of the word fallible simultaneously recognizes both of these character flaws. In modern usage, fallible refers to one’s ability to make mistakes, but it descends from the Latin verb fallere, which means “to deceive.” Fallible has been used to describe the potential for error since at least the 15th century. Other descendants of fallere in English, all of which actually predate fallible, include fallacy (the earliest, now obsolete, meaning was “guile, trickery”), fault, false, and even fjail. Whoops, we mean fail.
Examples of fallible in a Sentence
Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 30 Dec. 2024
But within its thriller-like trappings is also a complicated meditation on how such a demand rests on the shoulders of men and women who are human, and therefore fallible.
—Manuel Betancourt, Variety, 30 Oct. 2024
Their peculiar stories illustrate how history tends to repeat itself because memory is fallible.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 12 Dec. 2024
The tragedy of a single, fallible human against the backdrop of a new kind of infinity, which knows only efficiency and the global maximum.
—Ayad Akhtar, The Atlantic, 4 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for fallible 
Dictionary Entries Near fallible
Cite this Entry
“Fallible.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fallible. Accessed 18 Jan. 2025.
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fallible
adjective
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