See shambolic in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"etymology_text": "Perhaps from shambles + -o- + -ic + [Term?] (adjective), in which the interconsonantal -o- avoids the /mbl/ consonant cluster. Possibly influenced by symbolic.\nAlternatively, and more likely, a blend of shambles + symbolic.",
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"derived": [
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"word": "shambolically"
},
{
"word": "shambolism"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1952 April 4, The Tank, volume 34, number 396, London, page 231:",
"text": "[O]ne must admit there were those among us who were somewhat on the shambolic side.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1958 December 5, “'Pavilion Would Help Clubs'”, in West Sussex County Times, Horsham, page 6:",
"text": "He said his club had coined a new word 'Shambolic,' which meant spending more time watching the weather than playing.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1994, Timothy O'Riordan, James Cameron, “The History and Contemporary Significance of the Precautionary Principle”, in Tim O'Riordan, James Cameron, editors, Interpreting the Precautionary Principle, London: Earthscan, →ISBN, page 12:",
"text": "The precautionary principle is a culturally framed concept that takes its cue from changing social conceptions about the appropriate roles of science, economics, ethics, politics and the law in pro-active environmental protection and management. As this book will reveal, it is a rather shambolic concept, muddled in policy advice and subject to the whims of international diplomacy and the unpredictable public mood over the true cost of sustainable living.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2000, China Miéville, Perdido Street Station, London: Macmillan Publishers, →ISBN, page 24:",
"text": "The pub was empty of all but the most dedicated drinkers, shambolic figures huddled over bottles.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Philip Murphy, “Winds of Change and the Royal Family”, in Monarchy and the End of Empire: The House of Windsor, the British Government, and the Postwar Commonwealth, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 66:",
"text": "The shabby subterfuge surrounding Suez [the Suez Crisis], as much as its shambolic aftermath, have made it a symbol of the collapse of British global power in the post-war era.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2014 October 22, Graham Michael Barton, “Distribution”, in Show Me the Money: Where Did All the Aid and Money Go after Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines November 2013, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 5:",
"text": "During normal times, distribution of goods or services to over 7,000 islands [in the Philippines] is difficult, and the reality is that on a day-to-day basis, it's shambolic. There are too many examples of corruption and inefficiency.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 May 6, Sir Michael Holden, “Time for our industry's leaders to rise to the challenge”, in Rail, page 28:",
"text": "New train introduction had become shambolic with extended delays - mainly due to repeated software issues, seriously late deliveries, and gauging problems.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 September 28, New York Times Editorial Board, “The Picture of a Broken Tax System”, in New York Times:",
"text": "Donald Trump’s tax returns illustrate the profound inequities of the tax code and the shambolic state of federal enforcement.",
"type": "quote"
}
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"glosses": [
"Chaotic, disorganised or mismanaged."
],
"id": "en-shambolic-en-adj-phv6ZRYU",
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"Chaotic",
"chaotic"
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"disorganised"
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"mismanaged"
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"raw_glosses": [
"(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Chaotic, disorganised or mismanaged."
],
"related": [
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"word": "omnishambles"
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{
"word": "sham"
},
{
"word": "shambles"
}
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"translations": [
{
"code": "gl",
"lang": "Galician",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "caótico"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "kusza"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "kaotikus"
},
{
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "kūnakunaku"
},
{
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "kaumingomingo"
},
{
"code": "pt",
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"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "caótico"
},
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"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "caótico"
}
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}
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]
},
{
"enpr": "shăm(')bŏlʹĭk",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/(ˌ)ʃæmˈbɑlɪk/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
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"ipa": "/ʃæmˈbɔlɪk/",
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},
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{
"rhymes": "-ɒlɪk"
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],
"word": "shambolic"
}
{
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"word": "shambolically"
},
{
"word": "shambolism"
}
],
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],
"etymology_text": "Perhaps from shambles + -o- + -ic + [Term?] (adjective), in which the interconsonantal -o- avoids the /mbl/ consonant cluster. Possibly influenced by symbolic.\nAlternatively, and more likely, a blend of shambles + symbolic.",
"forms": [
{
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"tags": [
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},
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"lang": "English",
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"pos": "adj",
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"ref": "1952 April 4, The Tank, volume 34, number 396, London, page 231:",
"text": "[O]ne must admit there were those among us who were somewhat on the shambolic side.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1958 December 5, “'Pavilion Would Help Clubs'”, in West Sussex County Times, Horsham, page 6:",
"text": "He said his club had coined a new word 'Shambolic,' which meant spending more time watching the weather than playing.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1994, Timothy O'Riordan, James Cameron, “The History and Contemporary Significance of the Precautionary Principle”, in Tim O'Riordan, James Cameron, editors, Interpreting the Precautionary Principle, London: Earthscan, →ISBN, page 12:",
"text": "The precautionary principle is a culturally framed concept that takes its cue from changing social conceptions about the appropriate roles of science, economics, ethics, politics and the law in pro-active environmental protection and management. As this book will reveal, it is a rather shambolic concept, muddled in policy advice and subject to the whims of international diplomacy and the unpredictable public mood over the true cost of sustainable living.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2000, China Miéville, Perdido Street Station, London: Macmillan Publishers, →ISBN, page 24:",
"text": "The pub was empty of all but the most dedicated drinkers, shambolic figures huddled over bottles.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2013, Philip Murphy, “Winds of Change and the Royal Family”, in Monarchy and the End of Empire: The House of Windsor, the British Government, and the Postwar Commonwealth, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 66:",
"text": "The shabby subterfuge surrounding Suez [the Suez Crisis], as much as its shambolic aftermath, have made it a symbol of the collapse of British global power in the post-war era.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2014 October 22, Graham Michael Barton, “Distribution”, in Show Me the Money: Where Did All the Aid and Money Go after Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines November 2013, Bloomington, Ind.: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 5:",
"text": "During normal times, distribution of goods or services to over 7,000 islands [in the Philippines] is difficult, and the reality is that on a day-to-day basis, it's shambolic. There are too many examples of corruption and inefficiency.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 May 6, Sir Michael Holden, “Time for our industry's leaders to rise to the challenge”, in Rail, page 28:",
"text": "New train introduction had become shambolic with extended delays - mainly due to repeated software issues, seriously late deliveries, and gauging problems.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2020 September 28, New York Times Editorial Board, “The Picture of a Broken Tax System”, in New York Times:",
"text": "Donald Trump’s tax returns illustrate the profound inequities of the tax code and the shambolic state of federal enforcement.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Chaotic, disorganised or mismanaged."
],
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[
"Chaotic",
"chaotic"
],
[
"disorganised",
"disorganised"
],
[
"mismanaged",
"mismanaged"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(UK, Ireland, Commonwealth) Chaotic, disorganised or mismanaged."
],
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"Ireland",
"UK"
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}
],
"sounds": [
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"ipa": "/ʃamˈbɒlɪk/",
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{
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"tags": [
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]
},
{
"ipa": "/(ˌ)ʃæmˈbɑlɪk/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/ʃæmˈbɔlɪk/",
"tags": [
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},
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"audio": "en-au-shambolic.ogg",
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"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/En-au-shambolic.ogg"
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{
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"translations": [
{
"code": "gl",
"lang": "Galician",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "caótico"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "kusza"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "kaotikus"
},
{
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "kūnakunaku"
},
{
"code": "mi",
"lang": "Maori",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "kaumingomingo"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "caótico"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "chaotic",
"word": "caótico"
}
],
"word": "shambolic"
}
Download raw JSONL data for shambolic meaning in English (5.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (f889f65 and 8fbd9e8). 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.