The various types of defects causing failure in a variety of ceramic materials are illustrated. Examples are drawn from such ceramics as piezoelectric, infrared transmitting, and potential turbine materials. Both machining and processing defects are shown as sources of failure. The former are selected to illustrate the effects of machining parameters. Processing defects illustrated include pores, foreign particles and large grains, or clusters of these. Changes in the size of defects with specimen size are also noted.