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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

falter.

An unsteadiness.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfɒltə/UK/ˈfɔːltə/UK/ˈfɔltəɹ/General-American[ˈfɔl.tɚ]General-American
  1. An unsteadiness.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English falteren (“to stagger; be unsteady, tremble, quiver; to stammer; be entangled, get caught”), further origin unknown. Probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse faltrask (“to hesitate, be puzzled, be encumbered”). May also be a frequentative of fold, although the change from d to t is unusual.

verb/ˈfɒltə/UK/ˈfɔːltə/UK/ˈfɔltəɹ/General-American[ˈfɔl.tɚ]General-American
  1. To waver or be unsteady; to weaken or trail off.

  2. To stammer; to utter with hesitation, or in a weak and trembling manner.

    ambitransitive
  3. To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; said of the mind or of thought.

  4. To stumble.

  5. To lose faith or vigor; to doubt or abandon (a cause).

    figuratively
  6. To hesitate in purpose or action.

  7. To cleanse or sift, as barley.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English falteren (“to stagger; be unsteady, tremble, quiver; to stammer; be entangled, get caught”), further origin unknown. Probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse faltrask (“to hesitate, be puzzled, be encumbered”). May also be a frequentative of fold, although the change from d to t is unusual.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.