snafu

American  

[sna-foo, snaf-oo] / snæˈfu, ˈsnæf u /

noun

1. a badly confused or ridiculously muddled situation.

   A ballot snafu in the election led to a recount.

   Synonyms:

   foul-up, mess, confusion, disorder, disarray, bedlam, snarl

   Antonyms:

   order, organization, calm

2. an error or miscalculation, especially one leading to a confused or muddled situation.

   After some snafu deleted all my data files, I've finally managed to rebuild everything—I think!

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adjective

1. Also snafued in disorder; out of control; chaotic.

   What you’re proposing is a snafu scheme that simply won't work.

verb (used with object)

snafued, snafuing

1. to throw into disorder; muddle.

   Losing his passport snafued the whole vacation.

   Synonyms:

   bungle, mess up, spoil

snafu British  

/ snæˈfuː /

noun

1. confusion or chaos regarded as the normal state

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adjective

1. (postpositive) confused or muddled up, as usual

verb

1. (tr) to throw into chaos

Etymology

Origin of snafu

First recorded in 1940–45; s(ituation) n(ormal): a(ll) f(ucked) u(p); sometimes euphemistically construed as f(ouled) u(p)

Explanation

A snafu is an obstacle or glitch that keeps you from accomplishing something. We hoped to get to the campsite before sundown, but due to several snafus along the way, including a run-in with a bear, we didn't set up camp until midnight. Snafu was originally a World War II-era military acronym standing for "situation normal: all fouled up" (although stronger language was frequently used in place of the word "fouled"). Back in the military, a snafu would have been a dangerous situation, but this word is used now for any kind of error, goof, or mixed-up situation. If you drive all the way to the baseball stadium before realizing you left your tickets at home, that's a snafu.

Example Sentences

Emil Widhagen, a journalist for Swedish tech and start-up news site Breakit, argues many of Stockholm's music tech start-ups are facing similar challenges to Snafu Records, as a result of global economic jitters.

From BBC • Mar. 14, 2024

Song Snafu Instead of their chosen first song, “Nobody” by Leisure featuring GoldLink, Ms. Hardy said the D.J. “played the wrong song at first, so we just stood there.”

From New York Times • Feb. 11, 2022

What happened next, well, Hill has a few names for it: Snafu.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 12, 2018

Journalistic Snafu of Taking Advantage of a Hot Topic, Here a Tragedy, for Page Views Bottom line, we didn’t need a story about this.

From Scientific American • Jul. 31, 2012

For example, one might see the following: I resently had occasion to field-test the Snafu Systems 2300E adaptive gonkulator.

From The Jargon File, Version 2.9.10, 01 Jul 1992 by Raymond, Eric S.

Related Words

• blunder
• foul-up
• miscalculation
• misunderstanding
• mix-up
• slipup