How to Use failing in a Sentence

failing

noun
  • He has some minor failings.
  • Poverty is not a moral failing.
    — Michael Collins, USA Today, 13 Nov. 2025
  • It is seen as a complex health outcome, not a moral failing.
    — Laura Trujillo, USA Today, 28 Oct. 2025
  • As was Matthiessen’s self-awareness about his own moral failings.
    — Literary Hub, 14 Oct. 2025
  • Being fat is not a moral failing for which people should be punished.
    — Zach Wichter, USA Today, 4 Sep. 2025
  • In doing so, people are called to self-reflect on their failings and flaws.
    — Sofia Barrett, CNN, 24 Sep. 2023
  • This is not a personal failing.
    — Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 10 May 2026
  • That’s the real failing for this team in 2025.
    — Tim Cowlishaw, Dallas Morning News, 5 Jan. 2026
  • And for the politicians who see compassion as a failing to be turned out of office.
    — Globe Columnist, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Aug. 2023
  • With moral failings on a global scale must come a moral reckoning on a global scale.
    — Nadia Murad, Time, 13 Aug. 2025
  • Our tester’s reaction reflected a failing not on her part but on ours.
    — J. J. Goode, The New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2022
  • Some of these were our own fault or failings and some completely outside our control.
    — Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 7 June 2026
  • The exact same failings happened on the opposite side of the pitch.
    — Elias Burke, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2026
  • And those tails, on both sides, are levered bets on Musk succeeding or failing.
    — Vineer Bhansali, Forbes.com, 18 June 2026
  • As a new feature, its biggest failing is how many games don't show up on Play Now.
    — Sam MacHkovech, Ars Technica, 12 Aug. 2022
  • Having low, moody, or melancholy days is not a personal failing.
    — Emma Firth, Vogue, 14 Nov. 2023
  • At what point does the scramble for status and income become a severe failing?
    — Kyle Smith, WSJ, 9 June 2022
  • And there’s no question many of the failings come back to the fact the roster is poorly constructed.
    — James Mirtle, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Like every human creation, Wikipedia has flaws and failings.
    — Jimmy Wales, Time, 28 Oct. 2025
  • Regardless of the type of DIY will, many of them share the same failings.
    — Virginia Hammerle, Dallas News, 23 July 2023
  • The report claimed these changes were made to minimize the city and fire department’s failings.
    — Barnini Chakraborty, The Washington Examiner, 5 Feb. 2026
  • Many have been quick to blame Elon Musk for the worst failings of the social media ecosystem.
    — Brian Merchant, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2023
  • But Spring’s back-to-basics efforts to fix those failings are starting to show results.
    — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 16 Jan. 2026
  • The movie’s failings aside, Washington kills the accent and hits his big courtroom speech out of the park.
    — Tim Grierson, Vulture, 15 Aug. 2025
  • The pressure of succeeding or failing can be overwhelming at times.
    — Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Parents, 22 June 2023
  • More than anything, though, his failings only underscore just how much he’s squandered.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 17 July 2023
  • The narrators have soft spots for various failings.
    — Literary Hub, 12 Mar. 2026
  • The worst thing that could happen, the ultimate failing in a relationship, was its end.
    — Tom Rasmussen, Vogue, 1 Nov. 2023
  • And of course, in a story already rife with injustice, the police had to make sure that their failings were front and center.
    — Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 9 May 2023
  • Above all, the greatest failing of the virtual world is the human dynamic.
    — Stephen Miles, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'failing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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