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Pitfall vs Downfall - What's the difference?

pitfall | downfall |

As nouns the difference between pitfall and downfall

is that pitfall is a potential problem, hazard, or danger that is easily encountered but not immediately obvious while downfall is a precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.

As a verb downfall is

to fall down; deteriorate; decline.

pitfall

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • a potential problem, hazard, or danger that is easily encountered but not immediately obvious.
    • It's usually a simple task, but you should know the pitfalls before you attempt it yourself.
  • A type of trap consisting of a concealed hole in the ground: victims fall into the hole and are unable to escape
  • (computing) An anti-pattern.

    • Synonyms

    * : trap * : anti-pattern, dark pattern

    Derived terms

    * pitfalled

    downfall

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A precipitous decline in fortune; death or rapid deterioration, as in status or wealth.
    • Many economic and political reasons led to the downfall of the Roman Empire.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 13 , author=Alistair Magowan , title=Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The Black Cats contributed to their own downfall for the only goal when Titus Bramble, making his first appearance since Boxing Day, and Michael Turner, let Phil Jones' cross bounce across the six-yard box as Rooney tucked in at the back post.}}
  • The cause of such a fall; a critical blow or error.
  • *
    • It is the downfall of evil, that it never sees far enough ahead.
  • An act of falling down.
  • * (Thomas Hardy), A Laodicean

    • Synonyms

    * (precipitous decline in fortune) fall * (death or rapid deterioration) doom

    Derived terms

    *

    Verb

  • To fall down; deteriorate; decline.
  • * 1977 , Mina P. Shaughnessy, Errors and expectations: a guide for the teacher of basic writing :
    • [...] wants to make civilization his subject, he will have a hard time proceeding with the sentence unless collapse is in his active vocabulary, for he cannot say "our civilization will downfall " or "fall down."
  • * 1998 , Peter Vink, Ernst A. P. Koningsveld, Steven Dhondt, Human factors in organizational design and management-VI :
    • Common belief has been that in the future the number of middle managers will downfall due to empowerment and team-building.
  • * 1998 , Lithuanian physics journal:
    • It should be noted that the magnitude of satellites decreases when tuning out of degeneracy, and in the wavelength range of 1.2-1.3 pm it downfalls to the value of 10-15% of the main spike magnitude.
  • * 2008 , Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra :
    • [...] As goodly air as ever From lunar orb downfell — Be it by hazard, Or supervened it by arrogancy?

    Derived terms

    * down-fallen, downfallen

    Anagrams

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