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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of debacle
That Connor debacle highlighted what happens when queerbaiting accusations goes awry.
—
David Oliver, USA Today, 23 Dec. 2025
But this season’s 49ers team was lectured from the start to back off on the Super Bowl talk after last year’s 6-11 debacle and instead work on simply becoming a good team that gets better every week.
—Jerry McDonald, Mercury News, 23 Dec. 2025
Amid the debacle, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s ex-wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, was hired by Astronomer as a temporary spokesperson for a promotional video that poked fun at the situation by avoiding people’s burning questions about what happened and focused on the company itself.
—Nada Aboul Kheir, Deadline, 22 Dec. 2025
In successive steps after the 2007-09 collateralized debt debacle and the 2020-22 COVID-19 crisis, the Federal Reserve has increased the size of the money supply relative to output to the highest level since its inception in 1914.
—Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 21 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for debacle
David Oliver, USA Today, 23 Dec. 2025
But this season’s 49ers team was lectured from the start to back off on the Super Bowl talk after last year’s 6-11 debacle and instead work on simply becoming a good team that gets better every week.
—Jerry McDonald, Mercury News, 23 Dec. 2025
Amid the debacle, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin’s ex-wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, was hired by Astronomer as a temporary spokesperson for a promotional video that poked fun at the situation by avoiding people’s burning questions about what happened and focused on the company itself.
—Nada Aboul Kheir, Deadline, 22 Dec. 2025
In successive steps after the 2007-09 collateralized debt debacle and the 2020-22 COVID-19 crisis, the Federal Reserve has increased the size of the money supply relative to output to the highest level since its inception in 1914.
—Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 21 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for debacle
Recent Examples of Synonyms for debacle
Noun
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More than a year after the disaster, which killed all but two people on board, much is still unclear about why the passenger jet crash landed.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
11 Jan. 2026
-
The councilwoman emphasized that every neighborhood in Los Angeles is just one disaster from devastation.—
City News Service,
Daily News,
10 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Patients’ failure to take their medicine as prescribed is a major challenge that contributes to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and billions of dollars in health care costs annually.—
Prabhat Ranjan Mishra,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Jan. 2026
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Continue reading … SKIDDING TO SAFETY – All plane tires burst on Boeing 767 during harrowing landing failure.—
,
FOXNews.com,
8 Jan. 2026
Noun
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How messy could this negotiation get with his agent, David Mulugheta, who also represented Micah Parsons in that fiasco last offseason?—
Nick Harris,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
5 Jan. 2026
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Then came the shocking fiasco in New Orleans, a 40-22 loss to the Eagles.—
Kansas City Star,
Kansas City Star,
1 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Ege didn’t know it at the time, but the tragedy that happened to Musyoka has been playing out across the nation as pedestrian deaths near a four-decade high.—
Johnny Dodd,
PEOPLE,
8 Nov. 2025
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Burma’s plight is not just a domestic tragedy but echoes across the globe.—
Kim Aris,
Time,
7 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Carol, a reclusive and disgruntled bestselling romantasy author, exhorts her reticent audience of five immune English speakers to reclaim human agency against the milquetoast, obsequious blob and join her in a quest to reverse the happiness apocalypse.—
Natalie Oganesyan,
Deadline,
8 Nov. 2025
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Ilana presents herself as a stout-hearted reformer who’s being targeted by fascistic insurgents but is secretly evil enough to engineer an apocalypse.—
Matt Zoller Seitz,
Vulture,
31 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Debacle.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/debacle. Accessed 11 Jan. 2026.
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