fiasco
/fiˈæs.kəʊ/
"fiasco" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“fiasco” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #19,596 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #19,596
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 6
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A sudden or unexpected failure.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fiasco |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /fiˈæs.kəʊ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #19,596 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 6 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fiasco” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for fiasco is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /fiˈæs.kəʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #19,596 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for fiasco, with forms such as "faisco", "ffiasco", and "fiacso". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 6 confusable-pair relationships, "fico", "fresco", "Frisco", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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 t… The correct English form is fiasco, spelled F-I-A-S-C-O.
Definition
- 1A sudden or unexpected failure.
- 2A ludicrous or humiliating situation. Some effort that went quite wrong.
- 3A wine bottle in a (usually straw) jacket.
Etymology
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.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: faisco,ffiasco,fiacso,fiascco,fiasoc,fiassco,fisaco,ifasco
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of fiasco - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “fiasco”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is F-I-A-S-C-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /fiˈæs.kəʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “fico” - see the side-by-side comparison. fiasco vs fico
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.