Imbroglio

//ɪmˈbɹəʊljəʊ// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A complicated situation; an entanglement.

    "Into the drawers and china pry, / Papers and books, a huge imbroglio! / Under a tea-cup he might lie, / Or creased, like dogs-ears, in a folio."

  2. 2
    a very embarrassing misunderstanding wordnet
  3. 3
    an intricate and confusing interpersonal or political situation wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
snarlaltercationargumentbickerbickeringbind

Example

More examples

"I had a severe imbroglio with my girlfriend concerning her uncle's gluten sensitivities for the upcoming dinner."

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian imbroglio (“tangle, entanglement, muddle”) (im-, alternative form of in- (prefix forming verbs denoting derivation) + broglio (“confusion; intrigue, fraud, rigging, stuffing”); see also imbrogliare (“to tangle”)), cognate with and probably from an earlier form of French embrouiller (“to embroil, muddle”) (em- (“em-”), a form of en- (“en-”, prefix meaning ‘caused’) + brouiller (“to confuse, mix up”)).

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