MEANING
1. An option or outcome that applies automatically unless someone chooses or does something different.
2. A failure to meet a required payment, agreement, or other obligation.
3. A loss or award resulting from a competitor’s failure to appear, finish, or satisfy the rules.
Use it for
identifying an assumption used when no alternative is specified; showing how a preset can shape behaviour; distinguishing an active preference from an unaltered settingDistinguishes an unchosen preset from a failure to meet an obligation and a resulting forfeiture. Writing functions: Research / Methodology, Causation / Relationships.
Words that belong together
- a default option
- a default setting
- default to the original value
On the page
The survey recorded whether participants actively chose the option or accepted the default.
The model defaults to equal weights unless the analyst specifies another scheme.
The study separates the risk of default from the size of a borrower’s outstanding debt.
The firm defaulted on the agreement after the payment deadline passed.
The team advanced by default when its opponent failed to appear.
Word forms
- Base
- default
- Past tense
- defaulted
- Past participle
- defaulted
- Present participle
- defaulting
Usage notes
Noun, attributive adjective, and verb. Verb defaults, defaulted, defaulted, defaulting; future will default. Fail financially: default on a debt. Automatic choice: default to an option. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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