variants
also débâcle
1
as in disaster
a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction
the financial debacle that was the stock market crash of 1929
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in failure
something that has failed
the movie, which some had predicted would be a blockbuster, turned out to be the summer's biggest debacle at the multiplexes
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of debacle
Facebook-parent Meta's IPO, for example, was panned as a debacle, and the stock took more than a year to recover its debut price.
—
Sarah Min,
CNBC,
12 June 2026
Their Game 1 win over the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals was a photo negative of the Pacers’ debacle.
—
Mike Vorkunov,
New York Times,
10 June 2026
The debacle results in an exploration of fathers and sons, male friendship and rivalry and the challenges of parenting in a burning world.
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Desiree Anello,
PEOPLE,
10 June 2026
The 2010 tournament, however, would end in a similar manner to the 2002 debacle, Aguirre coming under widespread criticism for starting forward Guillermo Franco, who at the time did not have a club, instead of rising Manchester United star Javier Hernández, a fan favorite known as Chicharito.
—
Scott M. Reid,
Oc Register,
10 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for debacle
Sarah Min,
CNBC,
12 June 2026
Their Game 1 win over the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference finals was a photo negative of the Pacers’ debacle.
—
Mike Vorkunov,
New York Times,
10 June 2026
The debacle results in an exploration of fathers and sons, male friendship and rivalry and the challenges of parenting in a burning world.
—
Desiree Anello,
PEOPLE,
10 June 2026
The 2010 tournament, however, would end in a similar manner to the 2002 debacle, Aguirre coming under widespread criticism for starting forward Guillermo Franco, who at the time did not have a club, instead of rising Manchester United star Javier Hernández, a fan favorite known as Chicharito.
—
Scott M. Reid,
Oc Register,
10 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for debacle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for debacle
Noun
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Given the scale of the disaster, specialized teams from the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, and other countries began mobilizing toward Venezuela in coordination with local authorities and the United Nations.
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It was declared a disaster zone and militarized on Thursday.
Noun
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Taking the midway point of those numbers, an opening weekend of $45 million would be a monumental failure.
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Then came this spring’s historic and devastating floods across northern Michigan — in some areas, for the first time anyone can remember — swamping homes, pushing dams to the brink of failure and washing out roadways.
Noun
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Days before the five-year anniversary of the 2021 building collapse that killed 98 people in Surfside, the federal government has published findings that determined the structure of the Champlain Towers South condominium started failing about three weeks before the catastrophe.
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Chile introduced a tax deduction for catastrophe insurance premiums and resilience retrofit investment.
Noun
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There were missteps for Arista along the way, including the Milli Vanilli fiasco of the late 1980s, but the label would become a destination where artists would revive their careers after commercial step-backs or dormancy.
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If only the look from the outside-in had measured up the same way instead of descending into a fiasco as thousands faced infuriating delays getting to the stadium.
Noun
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First a human scores a model’s outputs — say, how likely a character in a drama would be to react to news of a tragedy with a host of jokes or expressions of sympathy — going back with one score after another to various responses.
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The parents of the teen killed in the horse carriage crash in Central Park are remembering their son as rides resume a week after the tragedy.
Noun
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And just when things could not look rosier, the SaaS apocalypse occurred.
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Not for the faint of heart, California’s Salton Sea conjures a sense of apocalypse.
Cite this Entry
“Debacle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/debacle. Accessed 28 Jun. 2026.
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