dereliction.

1. A serious failure to carry out an assigned duty.

2. A state in which buildings or land have been abandoned and allowed to deteriorate.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• dereliction of duty
• gross dereliction

On the page

The inquiry found dereliction of duty rather than a simple oversight.

Usage notes

Primary category: setting / environment. Forms: Usually uncountable; no ordinary plural in this sense. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.