calamity
noun
a great misfortune or disaster, as a flood or serious injury.
calamities
-
pluralof calamity.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“We would not be who we are today without the calamities of our yesterdays,” wrote Salman Rushdie in a memoir, adapting a somewhat similar remark by Samuel Beckett.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
We will treat on-field screw-ups like national calamities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
To avert future calamities, the forest outside Bordeaux must be thinned and its fire breaks widened, said Arthur Guérin-Turcq, a Sorbonne University geographer whose family cultivates pines near Le Porge.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Roberts warned of the "calamities that could arise" if presidents were able to impose their will on the Federal Reserve.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
He wondered what other calamities he was yet to learn of.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
