"foobar" meaning in English

See foobar in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈfuːˌbɑː(ɹ)/ Audio: En-au-foobar.ogg Forms: foobars [plural]
Etymology: Phonetic spelling of FUBAR, which is either an acronym for "fucked up beyond all recognition", or derived from foo. Head templates: {{en-noun}} foobar (plural foobars)
  1. (slang) A serious mistake. Tags: slang
    Sense id: en-foobar-en-noun--S8t4acp
  2. (programming) A metasyntactic variable name, a place holder for words; compare foo, bar. Translations (variable name): ajn (Esperanto), hogehoge (hogehoge) (Japanese), foobar [masculine] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-foobar-en-noun-Z0ynuZh0 Categories (other): Programming, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Esperanto translations, Terms with Japanese translations, Terms with Polish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 11 89 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 8 92 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 7 93 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 6 94 Disambiguation of Terms with Esperanto translations: 13 87 Disambiguation of Terms with Japanese translations: 13 87 Disambiguation of Terms with Polish translations: 18 82 Topics: computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, programming, sciences Disambiguation of 'variable name': 0 100
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: foo, foo fighter, FUBAR

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_text": "Phonetic spelling of FUBAR, which is either an acronym for \"fucked up beyond all recognition\", or derived from foo.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "foobars",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "foobar (plural foobars)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "foo"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "foo fighter"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "FUBAR"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "A serious mistake."
      ],
      "id": "en-foobar-en-noun--S8t4acp",
      "links": [
        [
          "mistake",
          "mistake"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A serious mistake."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Programming",
          "orig": "en:Programming",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "11 89",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "8 92",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 93",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "6 94",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "13 87",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Esperanto translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "13 87",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Japanese translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "18 82",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A metasyntactic variable name, a place holder for words; compare foo, bar."
      ],
      "id": "en-foobar-en-noun-Z0ynuZh0",
      "links": [
        [
          "programming",
          "programming#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "metasyntactic variable",
          "metasyntactic variable#English"
        ],
        [
          "foo",
          "foo#English"
        ],
        [
          "bar",
          "bar#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(programming) A metasyntactic variable name, a place holder for words; compare foo, bar."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "programming",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "lang_code": "eo",
          "sense": "variable name",
          "word": "ajn"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "lang_code": "ja",
          "sense": "variable name",
          "word": "hogehoge (hogehoge)"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "0 100",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "variable name",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "foobar"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈfuːˌbɑː(ɹ)/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-foobar.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/63/En-au-foobar.ogg/En-au-foobar.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/En-au-foobar.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "foobar"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English placeholder terms",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Esperanto translations",
    "Terms with Japanese translations",
    "Terms with Polish translations"
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Phonetic spelling of FUBAR, which is either an acronym for \"fucked up beyond all recognition\", or derived from foo.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "foobars",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "foobar (plural foobars)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "foo"
    },
    {
      "word": "foo fighter"
    },
    {
      "word": "FUBAR"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A serious mistake."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mistake",
          "mistake"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) A serious mistake."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "en:Programming"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A metasyntactic variable name, a place holder for words; compare foo, bar."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "programming",
          "programming#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "metasyntactic variable",
          "metasyntactic variable#English"
        ],
        [
          "foo",
          "foo#English"
        ],
        [
          "bar",
          "bar#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(programming) A metasyntactic variable name, a place holder for words; compare foo, bar."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "programming",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈfuːˌbɑː(ɹ)/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-foobar.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/63/En-au-foobar.ogg/En-au-foobar.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/En-au-foobar.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "lang_code": "eo",
      "sense": "variable name",
      "word": "ajn"
    },
    {
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "lang_code": "ja",
      "sense": "variable name",
      "word": "hogehoge (hogehoge)"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "variable name",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "foobar"
    }
  ],
  "word": "foobar"
}

Download raw JSONL data for foobar meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (6fdc867 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.