calamity
[kuh-lam-i-tee]
- a great misfortune or disaster, as a flood or serious injury.
- grievous affliction; adversity; misery: the calamity of war.
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Origin of calamity
1375–1425; late Middle English calamite < Middle French < Latin calamitāt- (stem of calamitās), perhaps akin to incolumitās safety
Synonyms
See more synonyms for calamity on Thesaurus.com1. reverse, blow, catastrophe, cataclysm; mischance, mishap.
Synonym study
1. See disaster.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for calamity
Contemporary Examples
Calamity,” Roth writes elsewhere, “when it comes, comes in a rush.
American Dreams: How Bush Shaped Our Reading of Roth’s ‘The Plot Against America’Nathaniel Rich
November 23, 2014
Lebanon, always on the edge of (and sometimes past the edge of) calamity, but too complicated for most people to figure out.
Batman and Robin was such a calamity that it was easy to reboot.
But their arrival was experienced by Indians, who found their worlds abruptly overturned, as a calamity.
Calamity here could also lead to the political demise of a far less secure dictator than Stalin.
Historical Examples
Oh, Colonel, help me to guard against so dreadful a calamity.
Decidedly, Dick had been a godsend, and his absence would be a calamity.
VivietteWilliam J. Locke
Three things have happened, either one of which would alone have been a calamity.
The Bacillus of BeautyHarriet Stark
Doubtless posterity has acquired a better city by the calamity of that generation.
Old NewsNathaniel Hawthorne
What horrible thing, what calamity that frightened my soul to think of, had fallen on me?
Green MansionsW. H. Hudson
calamity
- a disaster or misfortune, esp one causing extreme havoc, distress, or misery
- a state or feeling of deep distress or misery
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Word Origin
C15: from French calamité, from Latin calamitās; related to Latin incolumis uninjured
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for calamity
n.
early 15c., from Middle French calamite (14c.), from Latin calamitatem (nominative calamitas) "damage, loss, failure; disaster, misfortune, adversity," origin obscure. Early etymologists associated it with calamus "straw" (see shawm); but it is perhaps from a lost root preserved in incolumis "uninjured," from PIE *kle-mo-, from base *kel- "to strike, cut" (see hilt).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper