Failure
Failure noun - The nonperformance of an assigned or expected action.
Inability and failure are semantically related in impairment topic. In some cases you can use "Inability" instead a noun "Failure", when it comes to topics like incapability.
Inability
Inability noun - The lack of sufficient ability, power, or means.
Failure and inability are semantically related in skill topic. You can use "Failure" instead a noun "Inability", if it concerns topics such as impairment, incapability.
Mutual synonyms
How words are described
| similar | similar failure | similar inability |
| complete | complete failure | complete inability |
| total | total failure | total inability |
| initial | initial failure | initial inability |
| Other adjectives: obvious, real, constant, severe, massive, infamous, horrible, absolute, spectacular, possible, apparent, temporary, perceived, sudden, resulting. | ||
Both words in one sentence
- First-Person Peripheral Narrator: Cecil is usually a passive observer of events, sometimes to the point of being distressed by his own inability or failure to act.
Source: Podcast / Welcome to Night Vale -
The fact that the adult often knows the children are bully and victim, and punishes them both to avoid losing face (by avoiding having to admit their personal failure or inability to prevent the bullying), rubs salt into the wound.
Source: Unishment -
Eventually, this power will be the key to the apotheosis into a Daemon Prince, although failure or inability to keep the power from overwhelming oneself, leads to succumbing to the mutations and becoming a mindless Chaos Spawn, which is a much more common fate (provided they survived to that point).
Source: Evil Makes You Monstrous
Cite this Source
Inability and Failure. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 16, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/failure/inability
Failure & Inability. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/failure/inability>.
Inability or Failure. 2016. Accessed August 16, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/failure/inability.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "failure" and "inability" have occurred on timeline