EN

Synonyms for mess

59 synonyms
1 antonym
4 meanings

noun
verb

Most common

confusion chaos shambles hodgepodge deal good deal fix messiness

Synonyms by meaning

Noun

1. Muddle — A thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation

confusion, chaos, shambles, hodgepodge, disarray, muss, tangle, jumble, disorganization US, disorganisation UK, imbroglio, stew, litter, kerfuffle informal, snarl, disorder, maze, mixture, hash, fuddle, miscellany, medley, olio

2. Deal — mass; a church service

deal, good deal, pile, lot, great deal, heap, wad, plenty, batch, pot, sight, stack, passel, slew, spate UK, mass, raft, mint, flock, peck, mountain, muckle

3. Fix

fix, kettle of fish, hole, jam, pickle

4. Messiness

messiness, mussiness rare

Other

scrape, common, pinch, slaughter, stooshie rare UK

Verb

botch, fuck vulgar

Antonyms

All antonyms of mess →

Definitions

n. 1
A thing or group of things in a disagreeable, disorganised, or dirty state; hence a bad situation.
My bedroom is such a mess; I need to tidy up.
n. 2
Mass; a church service.
n. 3
A large quantity or number.
She brought back a mess of fish to fix for supper.
v. 1
To make untidy or dirty. To make soiled by defecating.

Related words

Word family: messy messless
Phrases: mess up mess about mess around hot mess mess with mess hall mess kit mess jacket

Forms

Plural: messes → confusions, chaoses, hodgepodges, disarrays…
Past participle: messed
e.g. messed → botched, fucked…

Example sentences

chaos There is a lot of chaos and confusion at the site.
confusion He disappeared, taking advantage of the confusion.
shambles The pandemic left school districts in shambles.
hodgepodge U.S. cuisine is a hodgepodge of immigrant traditions.
pile What is this pile of fur doing in the living room?

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
mess		rising
chaos		rising
confusion		steady
shambles		rising
hodgepodge		rising

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: lot¹, fix¹, pot¹, jam¹, wad¹
4 letters: fuck¹, deal¹, mass¹, hole¹, pile¹, mint¹, maze¹, hash¹, heap¹, stew¹, raft¹, peck¹, slew¹, muss
5 letters: sight¹, chaos², stack¹, batch¹, pinch¹, flock¹, spate¹, snarl¹, botch¹
6 letters: common², plenty², litter², pickle², scrape¹, medley², tangle², jumble², muckle², passel², fuddle²
7 letters: mixture²
8 letters: mountain², disorder³, shambles², disarray³, stooshie
9 letters: confusion³, slaughter², kerfuffle³, messiness, imbroglio³, mussiness
10 letters: miscellany⁴, hodgepodge²
15 letters: disorganization⁶, disorganisation

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (chaos² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: fouillis
Deutsch: durcheinander