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disaster
[ dih-zas-ter, -zah-ster ]
/ dɪˈzæs tər, -ˈzɑ stər /
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noun
a calamitous event, especially one occurring suddenly and causing great loss of life, damage, or hardship, as a flood, airplane crash, or business failure.
Obsolete. an unfavorable aspect of a star or planet.
OTHER WORDS FOR disaster
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CUDDLE UP! A COZY QUIZ ON FALL WORDS HAS ARRIVED
If autumn is your ideal season, spice up your repertoire of "fall" vocabulary with this quiz on some warm and vivid descriptive words for the season.
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Which of the following words means “to make a crackling sound; crackle”?
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Origin of disaster
1585–95; <Middle French desastre<Italian disastro, equivalent to dis-dis-1 + astro star <Latin astrum<Greek ástron
synonym study for disaster
1. 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 WORDS FROM disaster
pre·dis·as·ter, nounWords nearby disaster
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
How to use disaster in a sentence
British Dictionary definitions for disaster
disaster
/ (dɪˈzɑːstə) /
noun
an occurrence that causes great distress or destruction
a thing, project, etc, that fails or has been ruined
Derived forms of disaster
disastrous, adjectiveWord Origin for disaster
C16 (originally in the sense: malevolent astral influence): from Italian disastro, from dis- (pejorative) + astro star, from Latin astrum, from Greek astron
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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