debacle

1. 1.

   a sudden and violent collapse

   Synonymsfiasco

   Broadercollapse
2. 2.

   flooding caused by a tumultuous breakup of ice in a river during the spring or summer

   Broaderflood
3. 3.

   a sound defeat

   Synonymsthrashingwallopingdrubbingslaughtertrouncingwhipping

   Broaderdefeat

Other forms of debacle

plural

debacles·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about debacle

What does debacle mean?

debacle means "a sudden and violent collapse". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in debacle?

debacle has 3 syllables: de-ba-cle. The stress falls on "ba". In IPA it is /dəˈbɑkəl/.

What is another word for debacle?

Close synonyms include fiasco, thrashing, walloping, drubbing, slaughter. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is debacle a common word?

debacle is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.