to words fail you
- idiom
:
las palabras te fallan
- When she saw the devastation left by the hurricane, words fail you.
Examples
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After hearing the news, words failed you completely.
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Sometimes words fail you when you need them the most.
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In moments of true wonder, words fail you and silence says everything.
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Sometimes, words fail you when you're overwhelmed by gratitude.
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When she received the award, words failed her, and she could only smile in disbelief.
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After hearing the surprising news, all I could say was that words failed me.
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In that moment of joy and surprise, words failed him completely, leaving him speechless.
Synonyms
61
3.1
Unable to speak for a short time because you feel very surprised or shocked
28
4.2
Not knowing what to do or say
5
6.5
So shocked that you cannot speak
Not able to find words because of strong feeling
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'cannot find anything to say' is directly derivable from the parts: 'words' (utterances) + 'fail' (to stop working / be insufficient) + 'you' — i.e. the words are failing you. This figurative but compositional pattern is common across languages and follows a predictable logic, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would likely infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Words fail you comes from the image of words failing, with fail meaning 'not working', as if speech stops like a tool when feelings are too strong. That's why it means 'cannot find the right words' when you are very surprised or moved.