Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A chaotic or confused situation.
- adj. In a state of confusion or chaos.
- v. To make confused or chaotic.
Wiktionary
- alternative spelling of SNAFU.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. snarled or stalled in complete confusion
- v. cause to be in a state of complete confusion
- n. an acronym often used by soldiers in World War II: situation normal all fucked up
Etymologies
- s(ituation) n(ormal) a(ll) f(ucked) u(p). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I think the online idea snafu is a big slap in the face for IPL.”
“The mailings did go to the correct homes and won't be resent despite the name snafu, said Graig Lubsen, the BMV's deputy communications director.”
USA Today: Agency gets first names wrong for 58,600 Indiana drivers
“This latest snafu is the result of a little-noticed change to the gift-card rules of the Credit CARD Act of 2009.”
Consumer Reports: Fed allows continued sale of mislabeled holiday gift cards
“A technical snafu is keeping Elizabeth Bear's new book off the shelves?”
“No, the best way to avoid the running-out-of-players snafu is to go back to the game's roots and take a page out of the youth baseball rule book, where a starting player can be reinserted into his original spot in the batting order after he's been taken out.”
“That said, the Burress/Toomer snafu is embarrassing. — cph”
Misidentified Black People in Iowa - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“But after a major label snafu and family commitments subsided, they managed to get together 10 new songs, with a handful leftover that will make B-Sides or the beginnings of the next Autolux album.”
“− Dense dialogue makes the story and characters difficult to get into, and the caption / subtitle snafu is embarrassing.”
“I’m always impressed by how few people (esp. news anchors) realize snafu is an acronym and use it in polite conversation.”
“The snafu is the latest twist in the contentious history of the immigration lottery.”
The Wall Street Journal: A Losing Ticket in the American Lottery
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘snafu’.
-
wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
-
jaydrox's list
Mah list!
mediocracy, captivatingly, devastatingly, dazedly, heavenly, flawless, copious, conviction, synoptic, amalgamation, prefatory, precursory and 150 more...
-
Situation Normal
inspired by Mistakes Were Made. Words for things going wrong in a manner particularly violent, stupid, soul-crushing, boggling, grandiose, or any combination of these qualities.
fuckup, snafu, fiasco, abortion, miscarriage, implosion, contretemps, imbroglio, brouhaha, melee, kerfuffle, mayhem and 156 more...
-
things (bad)
things you may fall victim to.
goto things (good)
( randomness, events, situations, nouns )treachery, quagmire, overdose, bombing, suicide, homicide, spam, prison, acute renal failure, bad programming, being pants'd, bleeding out and 37 more...
-
Mistakes Were Made
scanno, typo, catachresis, spoonerism, lapsus linguae, lapsus calami, mispronunciation, faux pas, friendly fire, erratum, divorce, mea culpa and 19 more...
-
LYNIJOE'S LIST
ANY NEW VERY USEFUL WORDS
urari, urao, vifda, pterins, awee, nipters, novena, novenae, ilex, obiit, oobit, dzo and 6 more...
-
Misdaub and Other Blunders
misdaub, botch, bungle, misconstrue, lapse, miscalculation, flub, gaffe, underestimation, boner, indecorum, misstate and 28 more...
-
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
Just 'cause I like 'em, S
scrunch, solace, sabotage, saccade, sacerdotal, sacrilegious, sacristy, snappy, skew, steadfast, scowl, scorch and 781 more...
-
word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
-
Carlos' Words
monstropolous, absquatulate
triffid, calque, pinguid, refulgent, monstropolous, Seanchaí, clinquant, Chryselephantine ..., peavey, milium, swage, Burtillon, Burtil... and 224 more...
-
thekatespanos's list
pomposity, gaggle, scintilla, lemming, bilk, vanquish, conflate, plenary, verisimilitude, perspicacious, rattletrap, obdurate and 325 more...
-
And another
retrocausality, brusque, gainsay, cheerio, jaundiced, chamois, caw, craw, fudge, bubbler, shebang, bolo and 244 more...
-
curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
-
The braggadocio recipe
A selection of English* words ending with a vowel (except "y", "ea", ie", "ee", "oo", "ea", "ou") that is REALLY pronounced.
My favorite English words, by the way.
The good twin of The ...braggadocio, recipe, encyclopedia, solo, gnu, flu, maybe, apocope, mini, arrhythmia, folio, stereo and 197 more...
-
katiad's Words
exquisite, obnoxious, noxious, extravaganza, whirlwind, whirling, wild, spinster, existential, chaos, zephyr, blasphemy and 310 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for snafu.
alexz @CarlosG From 1942 to 45, there was a cartoon reel which had a character named 'Private Snafu'.
http://tiahblog.blogspot.ca/2011_03_01_archive.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Snafu
The first episode had
Situation
Normal
All
... pause...
Fouled
Up
animated in the title. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3fK5SdmJn0
May 12, 2013
reesetee Ben & Jerry's flavor, actually named "S.N.A.F.U." (with periods)--it stood for "Strawberries Naturally All Fudged Up." A retired flavor. :-) Aug 27, 2009
Prolagus Also the name of a bar in New York City. Mar 25, 2009
tbtabby Also the name of an Intellivision game. Mar 1, 2009
konoka I hate this word so much. Apr 5, 2007
stpeter Situation Normal, All F***ed Up. Beyond snafu is fubar. :-) Dec 9, 2006