fiasco

fiasco
1 of 2
noun (1)
fi·;as·;co f;-;a-(;)sk;  also -;;-
pluralfiascoes
Synonyms of fiasco
: a complete failure
The critic called the film a fiasco.
… the total fiasco that was his personal life …
—Margaret Atwood
fiasco

2 of 2
noun (2)
fi·;as·;co f;-;;-(;)sk;  -;a-
pluralfiascoes also fiaschi f;-;;-(;)sk;  -;a-
: bottle, flask
especially : a bulbous long-necked straw-covered bottle for wine


Did you know?
English speakers picked up fiasco from the French, who in turn adopted it from the Italian phrase fare fiasco—literally, "to make a bottle." Just what prompted the development of the meaning "failure" from "bottle" has remained obscure. One guess is that when a Venetian glassblower would discover a flaw developing in a beautiful piece they were working on, they would turn it into an ordinary bottle to avoid having to destroy the object. The bottle would naturally represent a failure to the glassblower, whose would-be work of art was downgraded to everyday glassware. This theory, however, remains unsubstantiated.

Synonyms
Noun (1)

bomb
bummer
bust
catastrophe
clinker
clunker
debacle
d;b;cle
disaster
dud
failure
fizzle
flop
frost
lemon
loser
miss
shipwreck
turkey
washout
Examples of fiasco in a Sentence
Noun (1)
undaunted by his early fiascoes, he continued his experiments in rocketry
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Noun
But so far, fans seem satisfied with the prospect of a MrBeast studio visit, and the fiasco of the past few days is unlikely to put a dent in his massive popularity.
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 16 Apr. 2025
The bottom line: One X user summed up the pronunciation fiasco and local response perfectly.
—Ryan Deto, Axios, 1 Apr. 2025
The day turned out to be a fiasco, in a darkly comedic way that my grandmother, who was an inveterate smartass, would probably have appreciated.
—Robert Moor, Outside Online, 26 Mar. 2025
The emergency was the latest in a years-long series of fiascoes within L.A. County’s juvenile halls — all of which have unfolded under the watchful eye of the California attorney general’s office.
—James Queally, Los Angeles Times, 1 May 2025

Word History
Etymology
Noun (1)

French, from Italian, from fare fiasco, literally, to make a bottle

Noun (2)

Italian, from Late Latin flasco bottle — more at flask

First Known Use
Noun (1)

circa 1854, in the meaning defined above

Noun (2)

1887, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of fiasco was circa 1854
See more words from the same year