FUBAR
/ˈfuːbɑːɹ/
"fubar" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“FUBAR” is uncommon English (frequency #65,130 among 2,507 “F” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #65,130
- frequency rank, English
- 2,507
- “F” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Acronym of fucked/fouled up beyond all recognition/repair/reason/recovery.
Corpus desk
Index EN-fubar · FUBAR · English
FUBAR · rank #65,130 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #65,130
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,507
- PHOTO-FINISH freq
Nearest frequency peer: freq (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “FUBAR”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- fomenting
fomenting
34,878 corpus weight
- footings
footings
34,876 corpus weight
- Frenkel
Frenkel
34,873 corpus weight
- freq
freq
34,872 corpus weight
- FUBAR
FUBAR
34,871 corpus weight
- GATT
GATT
34,866 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “FUBAR” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | FUBAR |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈfuːbɑːɹ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #65,130 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “FUBAR” in English
Rare enough to double-check
FUBAR is uncommon English at frequency #65,130 among 2,507 “F” headwords, classed as anadjective, transcribed /ˈfuːbɑːɹ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Acronym of fucked/fouled up beyond all recognition/repair/reason/recovery.".
FUBAR has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Originated as slang in the U.S. Army in World War II, presumably from earlier foo, possibly influenced by German furchtbar (“terrible”). It is unclear if FUBAR or foobar was the original form. The correct English form is FUBAR, spelled F-U-B-A-R.
Definition
- 1Acronym of fucked/fouled up beyond all recognition/repair/reason/recovery.
Etymology
Originated as slang in the U.S. Army in World War II, presumably from earlier foo, possibly influenced by German furchtbar (“terrible”). It is unclear if FUBAR or foobar was the original form.
This word in other languages
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "FUBAR", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).