downfall

Meanings

1. A sudden and serious loss of power, wealth, success or standing.
2. The thing or the flaw that causes such a loss.
3. A heavy fall of rain or snow (less common).

Example sentences

• "Corruption led to the downfall of the government."

  Level B2, Meaning 1

• "The scandal caused the downfall of the company's founder."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

• "Pride was his downfall."

  Level B2, Meaning 2

• "Too much trust in one supplier proved to be the firm's downfall."

  Level C1, Meaning 2

• "Historians still debate the downfall of the Roman Empire."

  Level C1, Meaning 1

• "A heavy downfall of snow closed the mountain road."

  Level C1, Meaning 3

Synonyms and antonyms

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• decline : A decline is a gradual drop. A downfall is usually sudden and serious.
• setback : A setback is a smaller problem that slows you down. A downfall ends something.
• demise : Demise is the end or death of something and sounds formal. Downfall stresses the fall that led to the end.
• undoing : Undoing is the cause of someone's failure, as in "Greed was his undoing." Downfall can mean the same.

Word family and forms

Forms: downfalls

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "downfall".

• the downfall of
• lead to the downfall
• cause the downfall
• bring about the downfall
• his own downfall
• the downfall of an empire
• be someone's downfall
• prove to be the downfall

Idioms and phrases

be someone's downfall

To be the thing that causes a person to fail or lose their position.

"Gambling was his downfall."

Origin

Downfall is a compound of down and fall. English writers used it from the 1200s, first as two words, and the one-word spelling appears from the 1500s. The sense of a loss of strength or standing has been in use since the 1300s.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Split it into down and fall. A downfall is a fall down from a high place, the way a ruler falls from a throne.

Test yourself

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