Word.ws English Dictionary

shambolic

Syllables: sham·bol·icUK/ʃamˈbɒlɪk/US/(ˌ)ʃæmˈbɑlɪk/

shambolic adjective: chaotic, disorganised or mismanaged.

Adjective

shambolic (comparative more shambolic, superlative most shambolic)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) Chaotic, disorganised or mismanaged.
    • [O]ne must admit there were those among us who were somewhat on the shambolic side.1952 April, The Tank, volume 34, number 396, London, page 231
    • He said his club had coined a new word 'Shambolic,' which meant spending more time watching the weather than playing.1958 December 5, “'Pavilion Would Help Clubs'”, in West Sussex County Times, Horsham, page 6

shambolic meaning in Malayalam

shambolic in Malayalam

chaotic, in chaos, disorderly
കുഴഞ്ഞുമറിഞ്ഞ, അടുക്കുംചിട്ടയുമില്ലാത്ത, അനവസ്ഥിത, അരാജക, കുഴഞ്ഞ, കുഴപ്പം പിടിച്ച

Examples of shambolic in a sentence

  • The pub was empty of all but the most dedicated drinkers, shambolic figures huddled over bottles.2000, China Miéville, Perdido Street Station, London: Macmillan Publishers, →ISBN, page 24:
  • 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.2013, Philip Murphy, “Winds of Change and the Royal Family”, in Monarchy and the End of Empire: The House of Windsor, the British...
  • 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.2014 October 22, Graham Michael Barton, “Distribution”, in Show Me the Money: Where Did All the Aid and Money Go after Typhoon Yolanda in...
  • New train introduction had become shambolic with extended delays - mainly due to repeated software issues, seriously late deliveries, and gauging problems.2020 May 6, Sir Michael Holden, “Time for our industry's leaders to rise to the challenge”, in Rail, page 28:

Forms of shambolic

comparativemore shambolic
superlativemost shambolic

Origin of shambolic

Possibly from shambles + -o- + -ic (adjective), in which the interconsonantal -o- avoids the /mbl/ consonant cluster. Possibly influenced by symbolic. Alternatively, possibly a blend of shambles + symbolic.

Words formed from shambolic

Words that rhyme with shambolic

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about shambolic

What does shambolic mean?
Shambolic means chaotic, disorganised or mismanaged.
What is shambolic in Malayalam?
Shambolic in Malayalam is കുഴഞ്ഞുമറിഞ്ഞ, അടുക്കുംചിട്ടയുമില്ലാത്ത, അനവസ്ഥിത. See Shambolic meaning in Malayalam.
How do you use shambolic in a sentence?
The pub was empty of all but the most dedicated drinkers, shambolic figures huddled over bottles.
What part of speech is shambolic?
Shambolic is an adjective.
How do you pronounce shambolic?
Shambolic is pronounced /ʃamˈbɒlɪk/ (UK).

Words near shambolic in the dictionary

  1. shambogues
  2. shambok
  3. shambokked
  4. shambokking
  5. shamboks
  6. shambolic
  7. shambolical
  8. shambolically
  9. shambolism
  10. shamboo
  11. shamboos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shambolic (page history and authors); shambolic (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-shambolic.ogg.

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