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Failure vs Outage - What's the difference?

failure | outage |

As nouns the difference between failure and outage

is that failure is state or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, opposite of success while outage is a temporary suspension of operation, especially of electrical power supply.

failure

Noun

(en noun)
  • State or condition of not meeting a desirable or intended objective, opposite of success.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 5, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool , passage=For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 23, author=Angelique Chrisafis, work=the Guardian
  • , title= François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election , passage=Sarkozy's total will be seen as a personal failure . It is the first time an outgoing president has failed to win a first-round vote in the past 50 years and makes it harder for Sarkozy to regain momentum.}}
  • An object, person or endeavour in a state of failure or incapable of success.
  • Termination of the ability of an item to perform its required function, breakdown.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
  • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. When a series of bank failures made this impossible, there was widespread anger, leading to the public humiliation of symbolic figures.}}

    Synonyms

    * (person incapable of success) loser

    Antonyms

    * (state or condition) success, triumph

    outage

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A temporary suspension of operation, especially of electrical power supply.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Out of the gloom , passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage , as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.}}
  • The amount of something lost in storage or transportation.
  • See also

    * dropout * brownout * blackout