catastrophe
Americannoun
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catastrophes
plural
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a sudden and widespread disaster.
the catastrophe of war.
- Synonyms:
- calamity, misfortune
- Antonyms:
- triumph
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any misfortune, mishap, or failure; fiasco.
The play was so poor our whole evening was a catastrophe.
-
a final event or conclusion, usually an unfortunate one; a disastrous end.
the great catastrophe of the Old South at Appomattox.
- Antonyms:
- triumph
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(in a drama) the point at which the circumstances overcome the central motive, introducing the close or conclusion; dénouement.
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Geology. a sudden, violent disturbance, especially of a part of the surface of the earth; cataclysm.
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Also called catastrophe function. Mathematics. any of the mathematical functions that describe the discontinuities that are treated in catastrophe theory.
noun
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a sudden, extensive, or notable disaster or misfortune
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the denouement of a play, esp a classical tragedy
-
a final decisive event, usually causing a disastrous end
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Also called: cataclysm. any sudden and violent change in the earth's surface caused by flooding, earthquake, or some other rapid process
Synonym Usage
See disaster.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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supercatastrophenoun
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catastrophaladjective
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catastrophicadjective
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catastrophicaladjective
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catastrophicallyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of catastrophe
First recorded in 1570–80; from Greek katastrophḗ “an overturning,” from katastréphein “to overturn”; equivalent to cata- + strophe
Explanation
A catastrophe is a disaster. If a wedding reception is disrupted by a fistfight between the bride and her new mother-in-law, you could call the occasion a catastrophe. Catastrophe comes from a Greek word meaning "overturn." It originally referred to the disastrous finish of a drama, usually a tragedy. The definition was extended to mean "any sudden disaster" in the 1700s. Nowadays, catastrophe can be used to refer to very tragic events as well as more minor ones. A hurricane destroying hundreds of homes is certainly a catastrophe; baking a birthday cake without following a recipe might also result in catastrophe, if you don't know anything about cooking.
Vocabulary lists containing catastrophe
Break It Down: Cata
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Words from "The Avengers"
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Don't Distress: Words With Irregular Opposites
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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.
See Examples For:
Most modern comedies about the environmental catastrophe like “Don’t Look Up” and “Downsizing” struggle because the truth underneath them is just too awful.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
An unexplained catastrophe, and the arrival of mysterious alien beings, have turned British society upside down - and a man and his elderly aunt muddle through on the Kent coast.
From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026
Taken together, the evidence shows that plague was far more than a single medieval catastrophe.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026
The Hindenburg catastrophe marked the end of Zeppelins’ mastery of the sky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
But a terrorist attack happens now; death by heart disease is some distant, quiet catastrophe.
From "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven D. Levitt
There is still plenty of Dickensian melodrama, especially when Livia relates the sequence of catastrophes that account for her transformation from a virtuoso with dreams of stardom to a small-town piano teacher and farmer’s wife.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Will his crew see this grandiose conspiracy through, despite their shifty partners and some last-minute catastrophes?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
That didn’t stop catastrophes like the 2018 fire in the Sierra foothills that destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 30, 2026
Economic losses from natural catastrophes worldwide are estimated to have reached $100 billion in the first half of this year, reinsurance group Swiss Re said Tuesday, a sharp decline from the period last year.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
As the Tunguska Event and Meteor Crater, Arizona, also remind us, not all impact catastrophes occurred in the early history of the solar system.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
