cataclysmic

or cat·a·clys·mal

[ kat-uh-kliz-mik ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or resulting from a cataclysm.
2. of the nature of, or having the effect of, a cataclysm:

   cataclysmic changes.

Other Words From

• cata·clysmi·cal·ly adverb
• noncat·a·clysmal adjective
• noncat·a·clysmic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cataclysmic¹

First recorded in 1850–55; cataclysm + -ic

Example Sentences

For years, alarming headlines have created a sort of drip of bad climate news, and in recent weeks, droughts, storms and fires have coalesced into one of the most cataclysmic seasons of climate-related extreme weather events in memory.

From Time

That means other cataclysmic events must have been major contributors, physicist Anton Wallner and colleagues report in the May 14 Science.

From Science News

Doucette said the result of all this could prove to be cataclysmic for employers, in that less access to mental health services could lead to lower levels of productivity and ultimately even greater expense for companies.

From Digiday

When astronomers saw the cataclysmic explosion, they at first thought it was something called a short gamma-ray burst, or GRB.

From Science News For Students

Initial clinical trial victories can quickly swerve into cataclysmic failures.

From Fortune

However: The historical record does not, it should be said, support the cataclysmic conclusion that Labour could never win again.

From The Daily Beast

Winters uses that cataclysmic event to examine the slow deterioration of communal life in the face of annihilation.

From The Daily Beast

The volcanic chain was activated, we were told, expecting to see cataclysmic explosions at any moment.

From The Daily Beast

It was the cataclysmic collision of spitfire upstart performer, brilliant pop song, and cheeky music video.

From The Daily Beast

It takes a cataclysmic and frightening event for the warmonger wing of the party to win the day.

From The Daily Beast

It had evolved out of a cataclysmic past, but it could not meet the challenge of the harshest environment.

From Project Gutenberg

The sense of a cataclysmic disaster in death would pass and be replaced by a sense of the continuity of life.

From Project Gutenberg

Its disappearance was rapid, but not in the opinion of most geologists cataclysmic, as suggested by Mr. Howorth.

From Project Gutenberg

When as pagans they feel it, the expression is a cataclysmic war of conquest.

From Project Gutenberg

The text may be given, since the effect was so tremendous and, indeed, cataclysmic.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• calamitous
• catastrophic
• disastrous
• fatal
• ruinous
• tragic