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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

bungle.

To incompetently perform (a task); to ruin (something) through incompetent action; to botch up, to bumble.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈbʌŋɡ(ə)l/General-American, Received-Pronunciation

  1. To incompetently perform (a task); to ruin (something) through incompetent action; to botch up, to bumble.

    transitive

  2. To act or work incompetently; to fumble.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is either: * onomatopoeic in origin (compare bumble (“to act in an inept, clumsy or inexpert manner; to make mistakes”), fumble (“to grope awkwardly in trying to find something; to blunder uncertainly”)); or * from Old Norse; compare Old Swedish bunga (“to strike”), and dialectal Swedish bangla (“to work ineffectually”). The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates * German Bengel (“cudgel; rude fellow”) * Middle High German bungen (“to hammer”)

noun/ˈbʌŋɡ(ə)l/General-American, Received-Pronunciation

  1. A botched or incompetently handled action or situation; a blunder.

Where this word comes from

The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is either: * onomatopoeic in origin (compare bumble (“to act in an inept, clumsy or inexpert manner; to make mistakes”), fumble (“to grope awkwardly in trying to find something; to blunder uncertainly”)); or * from Old Norse; compare Old Swedish bunga (“to strike”), and dialectal Swedish bangla (“to work ineffectually”). The noun is derived from the verb. Cognates * German Bengel (“cudgel; rude fellow”) * Middle High German bungen (“to hammer”)

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.