mexican standoff
noun
Simple meaning
A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
mehksuhkuhnstandawfSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈmɛksəkənstændɔf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
slang
A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
slang
A confrontation among two or more armed parties, none of which wants to attack first (fearing that the other could retaliate), but neither of which will disarm (for fear the other will attack).
slang
An inconclusive standoff, ending in mutual retreat.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A stalemate, or a confrontation among two or more sides that no side can win.
Used this way, mexican standoff is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It turns up most in everyday conversation and social media or informal writing contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Very casual
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Dismissive
- Usage feel
- Playful and informal
Where it naturally appears
- Everyday conversation
- Social media/informal writing
Usage note
Slang: natural in speech and messages between friends, but out of place in school, work or published writing.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.