catastrophist
Americannoun
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a person who expects or predicts large-scale social catastrophe, upheaval, or disaster, or who believes that significant societal change comes about only through such events.
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a person who believes in geological or biological catastrophism.
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.
Studying France, it is always possible to strike a less "catastrophist" note.
From BBC • Sep. 18, 2025
But of course, catastrophist in the other sense too, of, you know, events like plagues.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 25, 2022
Diehl has become a social media star among the catastrophist set, drawing some 60,000 followers with his own crypto-warnings.
From Washington Post • Jun. 3, 2022
I find it not merely catastrophist but fatalistic, communicating that humanity can at best merely teeter slightly toward and away from its own extinction.
From Slate • Jan. 23, 2020
I wish there was any chance of Prestwich being shaken; but I fear he is too much of a catastrophist.
From Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Darwin, Francis, Sir
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.
