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Faulty vs Malfunction - What's the difference?

faulty | malfunction |

As an adjective faulty

is having or displaying faults; not perfect; not adequate or acceptable.

As a noun malfunction is

faulty functioning.

As a verb malfunction is

to function improperly.

faulty

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Having or displaying faults; not perfect; not adequate or acceptable.
    • They replaced the faulty wiring and it has worked fine ever since.
    I don't think you can infer that from the premise. It's a faulty argument.
  • (obsolete) At fault, to blame; guilty.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iv:
    • Her faultie Handmayd, which that bale did breede, / Confest, how Philemon her wrought to chaunge her weede.

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "faulty" is often applied: goods, equipment, product, wiring, construction, memory, thinking, design, hardware, software, unit, part, component, assumption, reasoning, premise, gene, operation, technique, merchandise, circuit, code, analysis, posture, machine, method, habit, process, communication.

    Antonyms

    * faultless

    Derived terms

    * faultiness

    malfunction

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • faulty functioning
  • failure to function

    • Verb

    (en verb)
  • to function improperly
    • She told him the machine was poorly built, but they both knew that she was the one who had malfunctioned .
  • to fail to function