What does faultily mean?
"Faultily" is the adverbial form of "faulty," meaning done, made, or operating in a defective or imperfect way. Where "faulty" describes a thing that has a flaw, "faultily" describes the manner of its making, working, or execution — a machine faultily wired, a document faultily translated, an argument faultily constructed. The word carries a quietly critical connotation, implying not mere misfortune but a defect traceable to error at the source, which is why it appears most often in technical reports, legal judgments, and investigative prose. It belongs to a small family of English terms ultimately descended from the Latin verb fallere, "to deceive": through Old French, that root gave English both "fault" and "fail," so "faultily" shares ancestry with "fallacy" and "default." Though never among the most frequent adverbs, it offers precision that plainer alternatives like "badly" cannot match, pinpointing inherent flaw rather than careless effort.
adverbIn a faulty manner; defectively or imperfectly, especially as the result of a flaw in design, construction, or reasoning.
- Functioning, constructed, or performed in a defective or flawed manner.
- (Of reasoning or argument) containing logical flaws or errors.
"The bridge had been faultily engineered, and cracks appeared within a year."
"Investigators concluded that the alarm system had been faultily installed."
"The court rejected the verdict as having been reached on faultily gathered evidence."
"Faultily" lets you say in one word what would otherwise take a whole sentence: the thing wasn't just broken — it was broken because someone got it wrong at the source.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of faultily
"Faultily" derives from "faulty," formed by adding the adverbial suffix "-ly" to the adjective "faulty." "Fault" entered English in the Middle Ages from Old French "faute" (also the source of "default"), which itself descends from the Latin verb "fallere," meaning "to deceive or disappoint." That same Latin root produced "fail" and "fallacy," making these words distant cousins of "faultily." The adverb arose in later English usage to express the manner of being defective.
Related word forms
How faultily is actually used
Formal to neutral register; commonest in technical, legal, and investigative writing. It typically attributes the defect to how something was built, done, or reasoned rather than to wear or damage afterward.
Easily confused with faultily
"Faulty" is the adjective describing something that has a fault or defect, while "faultily" is the adverb describing how something was made, done, or functioning.
"Fatally" means with deadly or ruinous consequences, whereas "faultily" merely means defectively or imperfectly.