kerfuffle

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noun, informal ker·fuf·fle \ kər-ˈfə-fəl \

Updated on: 11 Sep 2017

Definition of kerfuffle

plural kerfuffles

:a disturbance or commotion typically caused by a dispute or conflict

In all the kerfuffle, nobody seemed to have noticed Harry, which suited him perfectly.
— J. K. Rowling

It's not the only school with dress code issues; almost every week there's a local story about some kerfuffle over what kids wear to school.
—Belinda Luscombe

kerfuffle was our Word of the Day on 08/01/2016. Hear the podcast!

Examples of kerfuffle in a Sentence

predictably, the royal scandal caused quite a kerfuffle on Fleet Street

Recent Examples of kerfuffle from the Web

But there was some question about how exactly that worked, and quite a kerfuffle in the 1840s when President William Henry Harrison died and Vice President John Tyler took over.

— mark z. barabak, The Seattle Times, "Questions on Trump’s mental fitness put focus on 25th Amendment," 26 Aug. 2017
A glimpse into the process came to light after a Facebook kerfuffle erupted in June.

— domenica bongiovanni, Indianapolis Star, "Fall Arts Preview: What will the long-awaited Peyton Manning statue look like? Here's what we know," 26 Aug. 2017
But there was some question about how exactly that worked, and quite a kerfuffle in the 1840s when President William Henry Harrison died and Vice President John Tyler took over.

— mark z. barabak, The Seattle Times, "Questions on Trump’s mental fitness put focus on 25th Amendment," 26 Aug. 2017
But there was some question about how exactly that worked, and quite a kerfuffle in the 1840s when President William Henry Harrison died and Vice President John Tyler took over.

— mark z. barabak, sacbee, "Trump foes, questioning his mental fitness, cite 25th Amendment. So how does that work?," 25 Aug. 2017
And that's why the kerfuffle about Verizon's decision this week to downgrade HD videos for its mobile phone customers from 1080p to 720p is probably getting way too much attention.

— aaron pressman, Fortune, "Data Sheet—Can You Tell the Differences Between These Videos?," 24 Aug. 2017
The latest kerfuffle over pierogi parties, however, finds Whiting as the defendants of a lawsuit.

— brigit katz, Smithsonian, "Two Pierogi Festivals Face Off Over Trademark," 8 Aug. 2017
The legal kerfuffle concerns the disposition of an important cultural item that NASA and others don’t believe should be in private hands.

— justin bachman, Bloomberg.com, "The Battle for the Moon Begins," 20 July 2017
Here is the kerfuffle that probably incited the taunt in turf, as told by the Peninsula Daily News in 2009.

— lisa gutierrez, kansascity, "Two neighbors’ tale of woe: The color purple, a giant ‘A HOLE’ and Google Earth," 13 July 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'kerfuffle.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

The Evolution of kerfuffle

Fuffle was first used in Scottish English, as early as the 16th century, as a verb meaning "to dishevel." The addition of the prefix car- (possibly derived from a Scottish Gaelic word meaning "wrong" or "awkward") didn't change the meaning of the word considerably. In the 19th century carfuffle, with its variant curfuffle, became a noun, and in the 20th century it was embraced by a broader population of English speakers and standardized to kerfuffle. There is some dispute among language historians over how the altered spelling came to be favored. One theory holds that it might have been influenced by imitative words like kerplunk, where the syllable ker- is simply added for emphasis.