infallibility

US/ɪnˌfæləˈbɪləti/

nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,271 of 15,258leans written

Infallibility is the state of never being able to be wrong. Papal infallibility, claim infallibility, no infallibility here.

Papal infallibility was defined in 1870 and is far narrower than most people assume, since it covers formal pronouncements on faith and morals rather than anything a pope happens to say. Elsewhere the word is nearly always used to deny it.

Definitions of infallibility

1nouninfallibilityThe state of never being able to be wrong.C2
“Doctors are human, and nobody should expect infallibility from them.”

infallibility is a state.

Practise this word

infallibility in the wild

The expression "Old Catholic" has been used from the 1850s by communions separated from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, primarily concerned with papal authority and infallibility.
Old Catholic Church
Some groups equate inerrancy with biblical infallibility or with the necessary clarity of scripture; others do not.
Biblical inerrancy
The concept of biblical infallibility gained prominence in 19th- and early 20th-century Protestantism as a fundamentalist reaction against modernist trends in mainstream Christianity.
Biblical infallibility
The concepts of infallibility and inerrancy are related but distinct.
Biblical infallibility
The infallibility of the Church is the belief that the Holy Spirit preserves the Christian Church from errors that would contradict its essential doctrines.
Infallibility of the Church

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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