Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An orgy.
  • noun A confused or disorganized situation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang A chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong. It is often caused by incompetence, communication failure, or a complex environment.
  • verb To fuck (something) up, to make a total mess of.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Reportedly coined in the 1960s by hippie poet Ed Sanders as Mongolian clusterfuck.

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Examples

  • “Maybe you can explain why this $10 Trillion clusterfuck is superior to my proposal [The government could have set up new National Banks with clean balance sheets and invested money in real businesses to keep the economy going].”

    Matthew Yglesias » On So-Called “Irresponsible” Borrowers 2009

  • But keep your eye on the bouncing ball, folks, because part of what defines a clusterfuck is the momentary appearance that sanity has taken hold, which is exactly what happened here.

    One Utah TheSometimesWhy 2009

  • This undeniable "clusterfuck" (there's no other way to call this) is indeed a game-changer.

    Source: McCain, GOP Significantly Expanding Advertising Map Into New States 2009

  • J.K. Simmons plays an unnamed senior intelligence officer who receives periodic reports on the progress of this "clusterfuck," while his agents watch closely but never intercede, letting the mess escalate out of control and never getting a real handle on what's going on.

    Burn After Reading Ed Howard 2008

  • J.K. Simmons plays an unnamed senior intelligence officer who receives periodic reports on the progress of this "clusterfuck," while his agents watch closely but never intercede, letting the mess escalate out of control and never getting a real handle on what's going on.

    Archive 2008-09-01 Ed Howard 2008

  • You can play an oppositional game against a fusionist conservatism, framed in terms of “saving” or “eviscerating” the programs as they now exist, or you can use the breathing room that you’d get on this front from bringing libertarians on board to avert a long-term clusterfuck, seizing the opportunity to begin reforms without worrying about conceding problems that could bee used against the very existence of those programs.

    Revenge of the Son of the Bride of Liberaltarianism: The Return 2006

  • As with the vast majority of bands who take the major label plunge, Bondy and his cohorts found themselves awash in the kind of clusterfuck schematics that hasten the end of a band's career even as said band begins to confidently assert its sound.

    Murmurs.com 2009

  • The term "clusterfuck" was invented to literally describe what happens in these cases.

    Mania News Feed 2009

  • It's an approach artist shaman Marcus Coates is trying with the Middle East peace process, so why not apply it to the "clusterfuck" that is the parlous state of Elephant and Castle?

    Londonist 2009

  • As with the vast majority of bands who take the major label plunge, Bondy and his cohorts found themselves awash in the kind of clusterfuck schematics that hasten the end of a band's career even as said band begins to confidently assert its sound.

    Murmurs.com 2009

Comments

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  • I've seen this word used as a synonym for the war in Iraq.

    June 1, 2007

  • I sometimes use this word to describe meetings at my office. ;-)

    June 2, 2007

  • I use this to describe a certain project we'll be working on for the next two years. Only in front of certain colleagues though.

    There are some times when simply no other word will do.

    June 5, 2007

  • Chained_bear! You're back! Where the heck have you been, Wordie? :-)

    June 5, 2007

  • "Art today is just one big clusterfuck of artists doing what will get them paid, what will get them laid or what will get them famous."

    June 2, 2009

  • An orgy verging on bloodbath.

    June 8, 2009