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View synonyms for apocalypse

apocalypse

[ uh-pok-uh-lips ]

noun

    1. a prophecy or revelation, especially regarding a final cataclysmic battle between good and evil.
    2. the apocalypse, in some belief systems, a final cataclysmic battle of this kind, in which evil is defeated and the present age brought to a close:

      According to traditional evangelical teaching, the apocalypse will begin with a time of persecution.

    3. the apocalypse, the end of civilization; the complete destruction or collapse of the world as we know it (sometimes used facetiously):

      On both ends of the political spectrum, visions of the apocalypse and predictions of doom abound.

      We thought this recession might be the apocalypse, and sales would go down to 1 percent.

  1. any universal or widespread destruction or disaster:

    If humanity is to avoid a nuclear apocalypse, a whole new level of international cooperation is urgently required.

  2. Apocalypse. Revelation ( def 4 ).
  3. any piece of literature belonging to a genre of Jewish or Christian writings that appeared from about 200 b.c. to the late Middle Ages and were assumed to reveal God’s ultimate purpose.


apocalypse

1

/ əˈpɒkəlɪps /

noun

  1. a prophetic disclosure or revelation
  2. an event of great importance, violence, etc, like the events described in the Apocalypse
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Apocalypse

2

/ əˈpɒkəlɪps /

noun

  1. Bible (in the Vulgate and Douay versions of the Bible) the Book of Revelation
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Apocalypse

  1. Another name for the New Testament Book of Revelation ; from the Greek word for “revelation.”


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Notes

An “apocalypse” is a final catastrophe.
The Apocalypse is supposed to come at the end of the world or of time.
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Word History and Origins

Origin of apocalypse1

First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English, from Late Latin apocalypsis, from Greek apokálypsis “revelation,” from apokalýp(tein) “to uncover, reveal” (from apo- apo- + kalýptein “to cover, conceal”; eucalyptus ) + -sis -sis
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Word History and Origins

Origin of apocalypse1

C13: from Late Latin apocalypsis, from Greek apokalupsis, from apokaluptein to disclose, from apo- + kaluptein to hide
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Example Sentences

Such is the strange and permanent apocalypse of 21st-century L.A.

Conning people into buying a book to prepare for an "Ebola apocalypse" is not just irresponsible, it's pathetic.

In retrospect, 2009 and 2010 were halcyon days in the Middle East, now that we seem just one horseman short of an apocalypse.

If you were in the zombie apocalypse, would you be a hunter, the hunted, or Tyreese?

All in all, a good week for learning that people you love aren't really dead and also holding off the apocalypse.

The sun, pale in the midst of a strange sickly transparence, lighted up this outline of the Apocalypse.

It also possessed one of the earliest of the block-books, the Apocalypse.

But a clear and direct allusion to this last grouping of the constellations occurs in the Apocalypse.

And behold I saw, said the seer of the Apocalypse, as if it were a sea of glass mingled with fire.

This Ten-Weeks Apocalypse, therefore, we take to be the work of the writer of the rest of xci.-civ.

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Apoc.apocalyptic