shambles

Questions about shambles

What does shambles mean?

shambles means "a condition of great disorder". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in shambles?

shambles has 2 syllables: sham-bles. The stress falls on "sham". In IPA it is /ˈʃæmbəlz/.

What is another word for shambles?

Close synonyms include abattoir, butchery, slaughterhouse. 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 shambles a common word?

shambles is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.