outage

noun

out·​age ˈau̇-tij 

1

: a quantity or bulk of something lost in transportation or storage

2

a

: a failure or interruption in use or functioning

b

: a period of interruption especially of electric current

Examples of outage in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The design relies on passive safety systems, using natural convection and radiative heat transfer—rather than powered mechanical pumps—to dissipate decay heat during an outage. — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 7 Oct. 2026

For those on the Gulf Coast, Tate recommends staying up to date on hurricane forecasts, getting prepared with food and supplies in the case of a power outage and following any local evacuation orders. — Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 7 Oct. 2026

OpenAI’s agents also crawled millions of pages and made thousands of data queries, which may have led to the partial outage of the Wikidata Query Service (WDQS) in May, the post adds. — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 6 Oct. 2026

Golden Gate Bridge fireworks show and the unplanned city-wide power outage in 2025. — Jose Fabian, CBS News, 6 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1851, in the meaning defined at sense 1