noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong, often caused by communication failure, a complex environment, or incompetence. idiomatic, slang, vulgar

   "[Colonel Meyers:] That's for sure. What's your assessment of this exercise? [Highway:] It's a cluster fuck."

2. 2
   A chaotic situation where everything seems to go wrong wordnet
3. 3
   A sexual orgy. slang, uncommon, vulgar

Verb

1. 1
   To fuck (something) up, to make a total mess of. vulgar

Synonyms

All synonyms

car crashcar crashcfcfcharlie foxtrotcharlie foxtrot

Example

More examples

""Any idea where the hell we're headed?" "Nah, but I'm sure it's gonna be a real clusterfuck like always.""

Etymology

From cluster + fuck. Reportedly coined by Hippie poet Ed Sanders as Mongolian Cluster Fuck. First use appears c. 1965 in East Village Other.

Related phrases

fuck up

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.