pitfall
Plural: pitfalls
Noun
- A hidden or unsuspected danger or difficulty.
- an unforeseen or unexpected or surprising difficulty
- a trap in the form of a concealed hole
- A potential, unsuspected, hidden problem, hazard, or danger that is easily encountered but not immediately obvious.
- A type of trap consisting of a concealed pit in the ground, which the victim is supposed to fall into and not be able to get out from.
- An antipattern.
- Subsidence below ground in a mine, which can cause the ground level above to drop.
Examples
- It's usually a simple task, but you should know the pitfalls before you attempt it yourself.
- Relying solely on common words is a common PITFALL in competitive Scrabble.
Origin / Etymology
First recorded use in the 14th century from pit + fall in the sense of "pit trap, pit snare", from Old English fealle (“trap, snare”), from Proto-Germanic *fallą, *fallaz (“a fall, trap”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pōl-. Cognate with German Falle (“trap, snare”).
Synonyms
booby trap, pit, antipattern, dark pattern, trap, trapping pit
Scrabble Score: 12
pitfall: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordpitfall: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
pitfall: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary