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cataclysm

American  
[kat-uh-kliz-uhm] / ˈkæt əˌklɪz əm /

noun

  1. any violent upheaval, especially one of a social or political nature.

  2. Physical Geography. a sudden and violent physical action producing changes in the earth's surface.

  3. an extensive flood; deluge.

cataclysm British  
/ ˈkætəˌklɪzəm /

noun

  1. a violent upheaval, esp of a political, military, or social nature

  2. a disastrous flood; deluge

  3. geology another name for catastrophe

"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

Related Words

See disaster.

Other Word Forms

  • cataclysmic adjective
  • cataclysmically adverb

Etymology

Origin of cataclysm

1625–35; < Late Latin cataclysmos (Vulgate) < Greek kataklysmós flood (akin to kataklýzein to flood), equivalent to kata- cata- + klysmós a washing

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.