FELL SHORT Synonyms: 59 Similar and Opposite Words

fell short

phrase

past tense of fall short

as in failed

to be unsuccessful The movie fell short of its viewers' expectations.

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as in fell flat

to go wrong The biography falls short by neglecting to explore the subject's faults as well as his virtues.

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Recent Examples of fell short The Hornets fell short of the state tournament last year after winning a 2024 championship. — Buddy Collings, The Orlando Sentinel, 29 Oct. 2026 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel fell short of outright victory on Tuesday night. — New York Times, 28 Oct. 2026 His first Senate bid, in 2002, fell short by fewer than 600 votes. — Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 27 Oct. 2026 In other early trading, the cryptocurrency platform Robinhood is down sharply after its quarterly profit fell short of expectations. — ABC News, 27 Oct. 2026 The company’s forecast for revenue growth in the final three months of the year fell short of analysts’ expectations. — Stan Choe, Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2026 While the comeback fell short, McCarthy impressed and made history in the process. — Ryan Canfield Outkick, FOXNews.com, 21 Oct. 2026 In what proved to be a heavyweight battle in Conference USA, the FIU Panthers fell short in heartbreaking fashion, suffering a 27-24 loss to Jacksonville State. — Alejandro Hernandez, Miami Herald, 14 Oct. 2026 All three of the bikes were stock, and even though the SR/S and DSR/X fell short of DS’ mileage, these bikes still managed to surpass the previous record as well. — New Atlas, 14 Oct. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for fell short

fell flat

Phrase

The deal is Novo’s second since its investor day last week, when its pledges to boost growth with new drugs fell flat.

— Ed Silverman, STAT, 29 Sep. 2026
Instead, the administration has proposed cutting more than 9,400 of my fellow workers and launched a new effort to privatize TSA — Horizon 25 — after the TSA Gold+ privatization campaign fell flat.

— Hydrick Thomas, New York Daily News, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of fell flat

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fells

fell short

fell short (of)

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“Fell short.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fell%20short. Accessed 31 Oct. 2026.

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