disaster
Americannoun
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a calamitous event, especially one occurring suddenly and causing great loss of life, damage, or hardship, as a flood, airplane crash, or business failure.
- Synonyms:
- affliction, adversity, reverse, blow, accident, mishap, misadventure, misfortune, mischance
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Obsolete. an unfavorable aspect of a star or planet.
noun
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an occurrence that causes great distress or destruction
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a thing, project, etc, that fails or has been ruined
Related Words
Disaster, calamity, catastrophe, cataclysm refer to adverse happenings often occurring suddenly and unexpectedly. A disaster may be caused by carelessness, negligence, bad judgment, or the like, or by natural forces, as a hurricane or flood: a railroad disaster. Calamity suggests great affliction, either personal or general; the emphasis is on the grief or sorrow caused: the calamity of losing a child. Catastrophe refers especially to the tragic outcome of a personal or public situation; the emphasis is on the destruction or irreplaceable loss: the catastrophe of a defeat in battle. Cataclysm, physically an earth-shaking change, refers to a personal or public upheaval of unparalleled violence: a cataclysm that turned his life in a new direction.
Other Word Forms
- disastrous adjective
- predisaster noun
Etymology
Origin of disaster
First recorded in 1585–95; from Middle French desastre, from Italian disastro, from dis- dis- 1 + astro “star” (from Latin astrum, from Greek ástron )
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.
His comments on X came after the television program Jornal Nacional reported, the state government had cut spending to prevent such disasters by 95 percent over the past three years.
From Barron's
He relives the disaster for the children and grandchildren of those miners, who visit him to understand their family history.
Turnbull -- who has described Taylor as the "best-qualified idiot" around -- warned the party faced disaster if it continued down that path.
From Barron's
Better to know beforehand what I will pay and what I will get and avoid the disaster that befell my friends.
"Everything is ruined. I am going to close the branch temporarily. After this disaster, it's crazy to spend a huge amount of money to rebuild."
From Barron's
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.
