一团乱麻

Traditional (Taiwan): 一團亂麻

yītuánluànmá ㄧ ㄊㄨㄢˊ ㄌㄨㄢˋ ㄇㄚˊ

    • hopelessly confused mess with no clear starting point

Character by character

Saying俗语俗語

Idiom惯用语 · In everyday use

Literally
a tangle of hemp
Meaning
A hopelessly confused mess with no clear starting point. Like 'a tangled web'.

Sources