Collocations for failure - noun

complete, total
abject, humiliating
The attempt ended in abject failure.

inevitable
costly
alleged, apparent, perceived
relative
initial
Initial failure was followed by unexpected, if modest, success.

ultimate
War is the ultimate failure of public communication.

personal
moral
academic
economic, financial
military

be doomed to, end in, result in
All her efforts were doomed to failure.

admit, tolerate
He was too proud to admit failure.
I will not tolerate failure.

lament
He lamented his failure to formulate a satisfactory theory.

explain
attribute, blame
He attributes the failure of the project to lack of government support.
I blame the failure of our relationship on my husband.

expect
Children who are doing badly tend to expect failure and criticism.

fear
avoid

rate
There is a high failure rate with this treatment.

fear of failure
Fear of failure should not deter you from trying.

a history of failure
John had a long history of academic failure.

a possibility of failure, a risk of failure
a sense of failure

big, great, serious
complete, total, utter
catastrophic, disastrous
abject, conspicuous, dismal, humiliating, lamentable (esp. BrE), miserable
costly
heroic (BrE)
If she could not succeed, she would at least be a heroic failure.

alleged, apparent, perceived
relative
past
to learn from past failures

rare (esp. BrE)
The movie was one of the rare failures in his career.

unexpected
personal
collective
moral
academic
economic, financial
economic failure and increasing unemployment

military

be, represent
prove
The venture proved a costly failure.

experience, have
feel (BrE), feel like (esp. AmE)
I felt (like) a complete failure.

consider sb/sth, regard sb/sth as
brand sb/sth (esp. BrE)
Her parents had long since branded her a failure.

arise from sth
failures arising from circumstances beyond your control

failure of
The decision to withdraw funding represents a failure of imagination.

fundamental
general
manifest
consistent, constant, continued, continuing, persistent, repeated
government, management
government failure to listen to the voice of the electorate

excuse, justify
Nothing can excuse your failure to ask my permission.

constitute
This breach constitutes a serious failure in performance.

mechanical, structural, technical
battery, brake, component, computer, engine, equipment, power, system
hardware, software (both computing)
bank, business, commercial, company, corporate, institutional, market
Business failures rose by 30% in 2001.

heart, kidney, liver, organ
the commonest cause of acute liver failure

cardiac, hepatic, renal, respiratory (all medical)
patients with chronic renal failure

crop, harvest
communication
intelligence, policy

cause, lead to, result in
a rare viral infection that can lead to heart failure

experience, suffer
The aircraft seems to have experienced an engine failure.

prevent

occur
A power failure occurred between 4 and 5 p.m.

failure in
a failure in the computer system