phrase · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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1
phrase
Meaning 1
Used to report that a (major) problem has occurred.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, humorous
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
A misquotation of the phrases “Houston, we’ve had a problem here” and “Houston, we’ve had a problem” said by the American astronauts Jim Lovell (1928–2025) and Jack Swigert (1931–1982), who were crew members of the Apollo 13 moon flight, to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, on April 13, 1970, after an oxygen tank triggered an explosion which led to the mission being aborted. The phrase in the form “Houston, we have a problem” was popularized by the film Apollo 13 (1995). The American screenwriter William Broyles Jr. (born 1944) altered the original phrases as he felt that “[t]he past perfect tense wasn’t as dramatic”. However, the phrase has been used earlier, for example, as the title of a 1974 television movie about the Apollo 13 mission.
Across languages
Translations
20 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Armenian:
Հյուսթոն, մենք խնդիր ունենքէ
(Hyustʻon, menkʻ xndir unenkʻē)
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Basque:
Houston, arazo bat daukagu
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Bulgarian:
Хюстън, имаме проблем!
(Hjustǎn, imame problem!)
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Dutch:
Houston, we hebben een probleem
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Finnish:
Houston, meillä on ongelma
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
French:
Houston, nous avons un problème
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Galician:
Houston, temos un problema
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
German:
Houston, wir haben ein Problem
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Italian:
Houston, abbiamo un problema
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Polish:
Houston, mamy problem
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Portuguese:
Houston, nós temos um problema
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Russian:
Хьюстон, у нас проблема
(Xʹjuston, u nas problema)
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Serbo-Croatian:
Хјустон, имамо проблем!
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Serbo-Croatian:
Houston, imamo problem!
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Serbo-Croatian:
Hjuston, imamo problem!
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Slovene:
Houston, imamo problem!
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Spanish:
Jiuston, tenemos un problema
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Spanish:
Houston, tenemos un problema
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Turkish:
Houston, bir sorunumuz var
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred
Ukrainian:
Г'юстоне, у нас проблема
(Hʺjustone, u nas problema)
— used to report that a (major) problem has occurred