ENGLISH
REFERENCE

degrade gracefully

idiom
Meaning

Of a system: to maintain at least some of its functionality when portions are not working, or when certain features are not available.


Examples
SIMPLE

The app will degrade gracefully if the internet connection is slow.

CONTEXTUAL

Our website is designed to degrade gracefully, so users can still read text even if the images fail to load.

COMPLEX

The software architecture ensures that the system can degrade gracefully, maintaining core operations even when critical hardware components suffer unexpected failures.

Anchors to

© 2026 English Reference