catastrophism
[ kuh-tas-truh-fiz-uh m ]
/ kəˈtæs trəˌfɪz əm /
|
noun Geology.
the doctrine that certain vast geological changes in the earth's history were caused by catastrophes rather than gradual evolutionary processes.
Nearby words
- catastasis,
- catastrophe,
- catastrophe theory,
- catastrophic,
- catastrophic reaction,
- catastrophize,
- catatonia,
- catatonic,
- catatonic rigidity,
- catatonic schizophrenia
Origin of catastrophism
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for catastrophist
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.
Mr. King, however, is not a Catastrophist of a very violent sort.
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 Darwin
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)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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catastrophism
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
catastrophism
[ (kuh-tas-truh-fiz-uhm) ]
A theory holding that changes in the Earth take place swiftly and irreversibly. (Contrast gradualism.)
Note
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.