Word.ws English Dictionary

screw-up

screw-up is the alternative spelling of screwup.

Meaning of screwup

Noun

screwup (plural screwups)

  1. (colloquial) A substantial mistake, usually causing problems for more people than just the person or group who made it.
    • The Ford administration emerged in better shape than it deserved from the fantastic screw-up that preceded the release of the Rockefeller...1977, John Osborne, White House watch: the Ford years, page 147
  2. (colloquial) A person who often makes substantial mistakes; a bungler.
  3. (colloquial) A person who is mentally or emotionally damaged.
    Synonyms:
    fuckup

Forms of screw-up

pluralscrew-ups

Questions about screw-up

What is screw-up the alternative spelling of?
Screw-up is the alternative spelling of screwup.

Words near screw-up in the dictionary

  1. screw-stone
  2. screw-stones
  3. screw-top
  4. screw-tops
  5. screw-type
  6. screw-up
  7. screw-ups
  8. screw-you
  9. screw-yous
  10. screwability
  11. screwable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: screw-up (page history and authors); screwup (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “screw-up.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/screw-up. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.