Faultiest

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. The aspect that is least successful or most erroneous is recognized as having the highest degree of failure
2. The quality that exhibits the greatest number of inaccuracies or shortcomings is regarded as the most problematic
3. The feature that shows the most significant errors or deficiencies is identified as the most flawed element

Etymology: "Faultiest" is the superlative of "faulty," so its story is really the story of "fault" plus a suffix. The suffix is the easy part: "-y" comes from Old English "-ig" and became "-y" in Middle English, a common way of turning a noun into an adjective meaning "full of" or "characterised by" the noun. A faulty thing is full of fault. Add "-est" and you get the form for the most faulty of several things. The noun "fault" arrived in English from Old French "faute," which means a lack or failure, and it traces back to Latin and ultimately to roots connected to failing or falling short. Its deeper ancestry reaches back through Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European, but English built "faulty" directly from "fault" plus "-y," so the word's working history is simply that compound.

Synonyms: most flawed, most defective, most imperfect

Antonyms: flawless, perfect, impeccable