catastrophism
[ kuh-tas-truh-fiz-uhm ]
/ kəˈtæs trəˌfɪz əm /
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noun Geology.
the doctrine that certain vast geological changes in the earth's history were caused by catastrophes rather than gradual evolutionary processes.
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Origin of catastrophism
First recorded in 1865–70; catastrophe + -ism
OTHER WORDS FROM catastrophism
ca·tas·tro·phist, nounDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022
How to use catastrophism in a sentence
Will the catastrophist diehards learn to stop worrying and accept the recovery?
He appears to have a catastrophist vision of Zionism and of Jewish life.
I wish there was any chance of Prestwich being shaken; but I fear he is too much of a catastrophist.
The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume II (of II)|Charles DarwinMr. King, however, is not a Catastrophist of a very violent sort.
British Dictionary definitions for catastrophism
catastrophism
/ (kəˈtæstrəˌfɪzəm) /
noun
an old doctrine, now discarded, that the earth was created and has subsequently been shaped by sudden divine acts which have no logical connection with each other rather than by gradual evolutionary processes
Also called: neo-catastrophism a modern doctrine that the gradual evolutionary processes shaping the earth have been supplemented in the past by the effects of huge natural catastrophesCompare uniformitarianism, gradualism (def. 2)
Derived forms of catastrophism
catastrophist, nounCollins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for catastrophism
catastrophism
[ (kuh-tas-truh-fiz-uhm) ]
A theory holding that changes in the Earth take place swiftly and irreversibly. (Contrast gradualism.)
notes for catastrophism
A belief in Noah's flood is one version of catastrophism.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.