EN

Synonyms for screw-up

  • verb
  • noun

Most common

mess up goof bungle botch

Synonyms by meaning

Verb

1. Bungle — to blunder; to make a mistake

bungle, mess up, flub US AU NZ, botch, ruin, goof, ball up, foul up, spoil, muck up informal, botch up informal, bobble, blow, bumble, fumble, drop the ball, hot up UK IE, louse up informal, heat up, mishandle, bollix, bolix US, bodge

Noun

1. Cock-up — A substantial mistake, usually causing problems for more people than just the person or group who made it

fuck-up, cock-up, fluff, fuckup vulgar

Other

screw, muff

Definitions

  1. v. 1

    To blunder; to make a mistake.

  2. n. 1

    A substantial mistake, usually causing problems for more people than just the person or group who made it.

Related words

Other spellings
screw up screwup

Forms

Plural
screw-ups → fuck-ups, cock-ups, fluffs, fuckups…

Example sentences

  • goof It's too easy for me to goof off when I'm at my computer.
  • bungle The company will never recover after that last bungle.
  • botch Tom and Mary hope that they don't botch the job.

By length

4 letters
blow1, ruin2, goof1, muff1, flub
5 letters
screw1, spoil1, fluff1, botch1, bodge, bolix
6 letters
fumble2, bumble2, bobble2, bungle2, fuckup, bollix
9 letters
mishandle3

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (ruin2 = 2 syllables).