disastrous

[dih-zas-truhs, -zah-struhs]

adjective

1. causing great distress or injury; ruinous; very unfortunate; calamitous.

   The rain and cold proved disastrous to his health.

2. Archaic.,  foreboding disaster.

Other Word Forms

• disastrously adverb
• disastrousness noun
• nondisastrous adjective
• nondisastrously adverb
• nondisastrousness noun
• predisastrous adjective
• predisastrously adverb
• quasi-disastrous adjective
• quasi-disastrously adverb
• undisastrous adjective
• undisastrously adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of disastrous¹

1580–90; < Middle French desastreux, Italian disastroso. See disaster, -ous

Example Sentences

If only it hadn’t come with such disastrous consequences.

From Los Angeles Times

"This year was disastrous due to drought," said the 46-year-old farmer, reflecting on the land that cost him more to sow than it gave back.

From BBC

"Regardless of how you feel about Kirk, about violence, about politics, this was disastrous," she said.

From BBC

In the face of a passive Republican Congress and a pliant Supreme Court, such a turn of events could prove disastrous.

From Salon

“It’s just going to be disastrous for California,” said Loretta Lynch, former president of the California Public Utilities Commission.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• adverse 
• calamitous 
• cataclysmic 
• catastrophic 
• destructive 
• dire 
• dreadful 
• fatal 
• fateful 
• harmful 
• ill-fated 
• ruinous 
• terrible 
• tragic 
• unfavorable 
• unfortunate