What does fiasco mean?
Word: Fiasco
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Fiasco means a complete failure, especially one that is embarrassing or a little ridiculous.
Synonyms: disaster, flop, mess, failure
Antonyms: triumph, hit
How do you spell fiasco?
Syllables: fi - as - co
Tricky part: The first syllable sounds like fee but is spelt fi, because the word is Italian.
Watch out for: feasco, fiyasco
Memory tip: In Italian the letter i says 'ee', as in pizza; fiasco is Italian, so its 'fee' is spelt fi.
Fiasco in a sentence
Example 1: The picnic turned into a fiasco when it began to pour and the bus broke down.
Example 2: Our first attempt at baking bread was a fiasco; it came out as hard as a brick.
Example 3: The new parking system was such a fiasco that it was scrapped within a month.
Fun Fact
In Italian, fiasco means a bottle or flask. Italians say 'fare fiasco', 'to make a bottle', for a performance that fails, though nobody is quite sure how the bottle came into it.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
fiasco
a) success
b) surprise
c) delay
d) rehearsal
Show answer
a) success. A fiasco is a flop; success is what everyone hoped for instead.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) calamaty
b) embarassment
c) disastor
d) fiasco
Show answer
d) fiasco. Disaster ends in er, calamity has an i after the m, and embarrassment needs a double r.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The annual play was a fiasko because the curtain got stuck halfway and the lights went out twice.
a) curtain
b) lights
c) halfway
d) fiasko
Show answer
d) fiasko. The k sound in fiasco is written with a c.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
scaifo
a) fiscal
b) fresco
c) cosmic
d) fiasco
Show answer
d) fiasco. Fiscal needs an l, fresco an r and an e, and cosmic an m; only fiasco uses these six letters.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which event could be called a fiasco?
a) a train that left on time
b) a calm evening with a book
c) a wedding where the tent fell down
d) a match won by ten runs
Show answer
c) a wedding where the tent fell down
2. If the school fair was a fiasco, the organisers probably felt ____.
a) embarrassed and disappointed
b) calm and well rested
c) proud and delighted
d) sure it went to plan
Show answer
a) embarrassed and disappointed
