When something goes awry, it goes wrong or gets off track in a way you didn't expect or plan for. The word rhymes with “goodbye” and captures that moment when carefully made plans suddenly veer sideways.

Picture organizing a surprise party: you've hidden the decorations, coordinated the guests, and timed everything perfectly. Then your friend arrives an hour early. The whole plan has gone awry. Or imagine a science experiment that produces completely unexpected results because you accidentally mixed the chemicals in the wrong order.

Awry suggests more than a simple mistake. It describes situations where things twist away from how they were supposed to go, often in unpredictable or crooked ways. A picture hanging awry on the wall sits tilted and crooked. A conversation that goes awry might start friendly but turn into an argument no one intended.

The word often appears in the phrase “go awry,” and it carries a sense of things becoming tangled or askew. When a magician's trick goes awry, the rabbit might escape before the big reveal. When a camping trip goes awry, the tent might collapse in the rain, or you might discover you forgot the sleeping bags. Something awry hasn't just failed; it has wandered off course in its own peculiar way.