fiasco
Americannoun
-
a complete and ignominious failure.
- Synonyms:
- bomb, flop, debacle, catastrophe, disaster
-
a round-bottomed glass flask for wine, especially Chianti, fitted with a woven, protective raffia basket that also enables the bottle to stand upright.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fiasco
1850–55; < Italian: literally, bottle < Germanic ( see flask 1); sense “failure” from Italian phrase far fiasco to fail, literally, to make a bottle, idiom of uncertain origin
Explanation
A fiasco is a disaster. It's not a natural disaster — like an earthquake or a volcano; a fiasco is usually the result of human failure. Fiasco comes from the Italian term that means "to make a bottle." How it came to describe an utter, embarrassing, disaster in the English language is still unknown. Today, you'll hear fiasco used in situations that have gone so horribly awry that they are almost laughable, like the Thanksgiving dinner fiasco in which the turkey burnt to a crisp, the dog ate all the side dishes, and everyone had to eat frozen pizza instead.
Vocabulary lists containing fiasco
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This Week in Pop Culture: February 16 - 22, 2019
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
We were so excited to assign blame for the Platner fiasco in the first few entries that we forgot to offer anything forward-looking.
From Slate ● Jul. 11, 2026
Some auto job losses are probably an overhang from the electric-vehicle fiasco.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The failure of the hugely competitive exam, along with a separate marking fiasco in high school tests, sparked outrage and fuelled youth protests demanding the education minister's resignation.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
Another victim of the pit lane penalty fiasco but overall a decent points haul for the McLaren man.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
Three's Company may never be the same after this fiasco.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
The fiascoes pile up during his full-tilt quest to achieve his dream of being a world champion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Those fiascoes were overtaken in the public eye by Alarcon’s worker-turned-enemy, L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 4, 2023
From failed gender reveal to photo-shoot flops, read on for nine of the funniest parenting fiascoes that made headlines this year.
From Fox News ● Dec. 29, 2019
The good news is the state report makes multiple recommendations that, if followed, should help Florida’s universities avoid future accounting fiascoes, while strengthening boards of trustees and the Board of Governors, which oversees universities.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 13, 2019
What happened next changed history and resulted in one of America's most tragic medical fiascoes.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
If the fiascos Jobs encountered were largely of his own making, the successes often had to do with luck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 17, 2026
Live Nation, the group behind Ticketmaster and countless controversies surrounding ticket fiascos, is facing a Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit later this week.
From Salon ● May 23, 2024
Lawmakers repeatedly asked what went wrong in the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank fiascos.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 2, 2023
The push for air travel reform from the administration follows a spate of public fiascos.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2023
Then, too, knowing his long list of athletic fiascos, ridiculous and otherwise, Hicks trembled at the thought of being sent into the biggest game to kick a goal.
From T. Haviland Hicks Senior by Elderdice, J. Raymond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
