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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

shambles.

A scene of great disorder or ruin.

8 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈʃæmbəlz/
  1. A scene of great disorder or ruin.

    countable · uncountable
  2. A great mess or clutter.

    countable
    This bedroom is a shambles.
  3. A scene of bloodshed, carnage or devastation.

    countable
  4. A slaughterhouse.

    countable
  5. A butcher's shop.

    archaic · countable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English schamels, plural of schamel, from Old English sċeamol, sċamul (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil (“stool, bench”), from Vulgar Latin scamellum, from Latin scamillum (“little bench, ridge”), from Latin scamnum (“bench, ridge, breadth of a field”).

verb/ˈʃæmbəlz/
  1. third-person singular simple present indicative of shamble

    form-of · indicative · present · singular · third-person
Where this word comes from

From Middle English schamels, plural of schamel, from Old English sċeamol, sċamul (“bench, stool”), from Proto-West Germanic *skamul, *skamil (“stool, bench”), from Vulgar Latin scamellum, from Latin scamillum (“little bench, ridge”), from Latin scamnum (“bench, ridge, breadth of a field”).

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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.