Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A thatched pyramidal wooden hut of eastern Siberia, raised on piles to a height of about 10 feet, and reached by a ladder consisting of a notched tree-stem.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a word for chaos or fiasco borrowed from modern Hebrew (where it is a loan word from Russian)
Examples
“The native Kamschatdales have two kinds of houses of indigenous architecture -- one for summer, the "balagan," and another to which they retire during the winter, called the "jourt.”
“A gripping tale of all the balagan [chaos] that goes on in Ajami: relations between Jewish and Arab neighbours, West Bankers and Israeli Arabs, Christians and Muslims, and everything in between.”
Global Voices in English » Israel: “Ajami” Reveals Nuanced Look at Israeli Society
“So far, this is a case where I hope gay-rights activists and true liberals -- those who believe in liberty -- will take a deep breath before joyfully exploiting the bathroom balagan as an additional reason to oppose the Senator.”
“I’m a major fan and multiyear devotee, despite the balagan of long lines and anxious ticket holders.”
“Because of the attack on the Pentagon, the whole area was in such balagan that he could not get through to me on that line.”
“Step-by-Step: Making Aliyah to Israel: What a balagan!”
“The Sandmonkey has made a very interesting post about the current balagan mess and the comments are also very worth a read.”
“***The censors now allow the following: There was an almost balagan.”
“Work was a balagan on so many levels but I'll only discuss one of them and that is that I had to cancel my class because the powerpoint projector wouldn't work on any of the computers available and what they needed to see to understand was on the powerpoint.”
“While, without a doubt before this latest balagan you would find Israeli voices who call for the expulsion of our Arab citizens or for a scorched earth policy in Gaza but those voices are few and roundly condemned by the majority of Israelis.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘balagan’.
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That Could Have Gone Better
dud, flop, fiasco, debacle, failure, learning experience, wash, doa, epic fail, bomb, crash and burn, bungle and 41 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
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Salome's List
Favorite words of a gal who lists "diagramming sentences" as one of her interests on other social networking sites.
persiflage, verisimilitude, fach, accoutrement, asymtotic, vexatious, frankly, soporific, addled, metonymy, synecdoche, puerile and 19 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for balagan.
leaden This word’s etymology (according to WeirdNet—compare with the CDC’s definition) is aptly confused. Oct 2, 2011