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omnishambles

American  
[om-nuh-sham-buhlz] / ˈɒm nəˌʃæm bəlz /

noun

(used with a singular verb)
  • omnishambles
    plural
  1. Chiefly British Informal. a situation, especially in politics, in which poor judgment results in disorder or chaos with potentially disastrous consequences.

    Many people think that Brexit created a real omnishambles for Britain.


Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of omnishambles

2009; omni- + shambles 1 ( def. ); first used in the BBC TV series The Thick of It, a political satire

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:

The Inquiry was shown a page from Sir Frank's notebook with the word omnishambles scrawled across it, which appears to be from the summer of 2020.

From BBC Mar. 4, 2024

How the alleged affair won her a book deal and speaking gigs, yes, but how her life also became an omnishambles of harassment and threats.

From Washington Post Mar. 22, 2023

If his book is an omnishambles, well, I’ve always had a soft spot for rough noise.

From New York Times Jun. 22, 2021

If you’d coined omnishambles, you could probably die happy.

From The Guardian May 29, 2015

"While many of them are probably humorous one-offs, their very existence shows that the omnishambles itself has entered at least the familiar parlance, if not quite the common parlance."

From BBC Nov. 13, 2012

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