fiasco
/fiˈæs.koʊ/noun
fiasco is spelled F-I-A-S-C-O: 6 letters and 3 syllables. It appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, fiasco means “A sudden or unexpected failure” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of fiasco is fiascos or fiascoes; Wiktionary also lists fiasci (hypercorrect).
How many letters and syllables are in fiasco?
| Letters | 6: F-I-A-S-C-O |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.0 times per million words; the 19,589th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is fiasco?
Fiasco appears 2.0 times per million words in written English, the 19,589th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce fiasco?
- UK /fiˈæs.kəʊ/
- US /fiˈæs.koʊ/
Fiasco has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fiasco.ogg, En-au-fiasco.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with fiasco?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as fiasco (/æskoʊ/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: fascio.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of fiasco
- fiascos plural
- fiascoes plural
- fiaschi plural
- fiasci hypercorrect, plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does fiasco mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A sudden or unexpected failure.
The event turned into a complete fiasco when the power went out.
- 2
A ludicrous or humiliating situation. Some effort that went quite wrong.
- 3
A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Fiasco in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense ludicrous or humiliating situation:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does fiasco come from?
Borrowed from Italian fiasco (“bottle, flask”), from Late Latin flasca, flascō (“bottle, container”), from Frankish *flaskā (“bottle, flask”) from Proto-Germanic *flaskǭ (“bottle”); see flask. “Failure” sense comes through French faire fiasco from Italian theatrical slang far fiasco (literally “to make a bottle”), of uncertain origin; perhaps from an expression fare il fiasco, meaning to play a game with the forfeit that the loser will buy the next bottle or round of drinks. Doublet of flacon, flagon, and flask.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).