topsy-turviness
topsy-turviness noun: the condition or state of being topsy-turvy; disorderly or muddled.
Noun
topsy-turviness (uncountable)
- The condition or state of being topsy-turvy; disorderly or muddled.
- Poor Margaret’s state of mind may have accounted for the tremendous topsy-turviness—to use a familiar expression—of her sentences.1847, Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, The Comic History of England, London: Punch, Volume I, Book 4, Chapter 4, page 278
- The ward master comes to the door of each room that is to be thinned, reads off a list of names, bids their owners look sharp and be ready when called for; and, as he vanishes, the rooms fall into an indescribable state of topsy-turvyness, as the boys begin to black their boots, brighten spurs, if...1863 May 22 – 1863 June 26, L[ouisa] M[ay] Alcott, “A Postscript”, in Hospital Sketches, Boston, Mass.: James Redpath, […], published August 1863, →OCLC, page 95
- Synonyms:
- chaos, disorganization, muddle, bedlam, car crash, confusion, disarray, disorder, dog's breakfast, dog's dinner
Examples of topsy-turviness in a sentence
- This is perfectly true, but the topsy-turviness of the idea never seems to strike them.1901, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “A Defence of Patriotism”, in The Defendant, London: R. Brimley Johnson, →OCLC, page 130:
- But the club’s predicament owes more to the topsy-turviness of Russian soccer than to some historic hoodoo.2016 February 11, Sean Williams, “The downfall of a Russian soccer team”, in The New Yorker:
Synonyms of topsy-turviness
- chaos
- disorganization
- muddle
- bedlam
- car crash
- confusion
- disarray
- disorder
- dog's breakfast
- dog's dinner
17 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of topsy-turviness
| alternative form | topsyturviness |
|---|---|
| alternative form | topsy-turvyness |
Origin of topsy-turviness
From topsy-turvy + -ness.
Questions about topsy-turviness
- What does topsy-turviness mean?
- Topsy-turviness means the condition or state of being topsy-turvy; disorderly or muddled.
- How do you use topsy-turviness in a sentence?
- This is perfectly true, but the topsy-turviness of the idea never seems to strike them.
- What part of speech is topsy-turviness?
- Topsy-turviness is a noun.
Words near topsy-turviness in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: topsy-turviness (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: “topsy-turviness.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/topsy-turviness. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.