masakra
insane, unbelievable, a disaster (exclamation)
Pronunciation
/maˈsakra/
Cultural Note
'Masakra' literally means 'massacre' but Poles use it as a catch-all exclamation for anything extreme — usually negative but sometimes positive. 'Masakra!' can mean 'that's insane,' 'that's terrible,' or 'that's unbelievable.' A traffic jam is 'masakra,' a hard exam is 'masakra,' incredible weather is also 'masakra.' It's one of the most overused words in Polish — some people say it ten times a day. Linguists have noted it as an example of semantic bleaching, where a word's strong original meaning (massacre!) fades through overuse into a general intensifier.
📝 Example Sentences
Masakra, jaki korek na autostradzie!
Insane, what a traffic jam on the highway!
Ten egzamin to była masakra, nikt nie zdał.
That exam was a disaster, nobody passed.
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