Word.ws English Dictionary

snafu

/snæˈfuː//snæˈfu/

snafu is the alternative letter-case form of SNAFU.

Noun (1)

snafu (plural snafus)

  1. (Internet) a satirical purposefully low-quality rendition of an internet meme

Verb

snafu (third-person singular simple present snafus, present participle snafuing, simple past and past participle snafued)

  1. (slang) To screw up, fuck up, or foul up.
    • Generally I just catch the main event; but this night the prelims were snafued and the last bout was going on when I checked in.1950: Backfire (dir. Vincent Sherman), at about 30m

Phrase capitalized: SNAFU

SNAFU

  1. (abbreviation, acronym, euphemistic, slang) Acronym of situation normal, all fucked up /situation normal, all fouled up.

Noun (2) capitalized: SNAFU

SNAFU (plural SNAFUs)

  1. A confused, muddled, or messed-up condition or state; a ridiculously chaotic situation; confusion or chaos regarded as the normal state.
  2. A major glitch or breakdown; a mistake or blunder.
    • Because of a paperwork snafu, he also hasn’t been able to get his Army discharge papers and is still listed as an active-duty soldier…2007, Susan Glairon, Paperwork SNAFU, The Daily Times-Call, LongmontFYI

Forms of snafu

Noun
pluralsnafus
pluralSNAFUs
Verb
third-person singular presentsnafus
present participlesnafuing
past participlesnafued
pastsnafued
Phrase
alternative formsnafu

Origin of snafu

The term was born during the Second World War as an acronym of the initials of the words situation normal, all fucked up, which summed up the chaos and confusion of the war from an individual soldier’s point of view.

Words that rhyme with snafu

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about snafu

What does snafu mean?
Snafu means a satirical purposefully low-quality rendition of an internet meme.
What is snafu the alternative letter-case form of?
Snafu is the alternative letter-case form of SNAFU.
What part of speech is snafu?
Snafu can be a noun, a verb or a phrase.
How do you pronounce snafu?
Snafu is pronounced /snæˈfuː/ (UK).
What is the plural of snafu?
The plural of snafu is snafus.

Words near snafu in the dictionary

  1. snaffles
  2. snaffles up
  3. snaffling
  4. snaffling lay
  5. snaffling up
  6. snafu
  7. snafued
  8. snafuing
  9. snafus
  10. snag
  11. snag list

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: snafu (page history and authors); SNAFU (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-snafu.ogg, en-us-SNAFU.ogg.

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