故障

gùzhàng

noun HSK 6 #4,540

Meanings

1 malfunction; breakdown; fault
2 failure; glitch

Characters

reason; cause; incident

obstacle; barrier; hindrance

A causal obstacle — something has gone wrong and is blocking normal operation.

Examples

电梯出故障了。

Diàntī chū gù zhàng le.

The elevator broke down.

工程师正在排除故障。

Gōngchéngshī zhèngzài páichú gù zhàng.

The engineer is troubleshooting.

系统出现了故障。

Xìtǒng chūxiàn le gù zhàng.

The system has a malfunction.

这次停电是由设备故障引起的。

Zhè cì tíngdiàn shì yóu shèbèi gù zhàng yǐnqǐ de.

This power outage was caused by an equipment failure.

Tips

usage

故障 is the standard word for mechanical/technical failures: 机械故障 (mechanical failure), 系统故障 (system failure), 排除故障 (troubleshoot). For minor issues with apps/software, 故障 or bug (直接用英文) are both used.

Stroke Order

故 gù

障 zhàng