disaster
[dih-zas-ter, -zah-ster]
- 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.
Show More
Origin of disaster
1585–95; < Middle French desastre < Italian disastro, equivalent to dis- dis-1 + astro star < Latin astrum < Greek ástron
Synonyms
See more synonyms for disaster on Thesaurus.com1. mischance, misfortune, misadventure, mishap, accident, blow, reverse, adversity, affliction.
Synonym study
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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for disaster
Contemporary Examples
Also like the Air France disaster, the pilots of AirAsia had no time to issue a mayday call.
THE NEW YORK TIMES/JILL ABRAMSON DISASTER: It was messy enough when, on May 14, New York Times Co.
The 1986 Chernobyl disaster is widely considered to be the greatest nuclear catastrophe in world history.
You are converging two events that are freighted with expectations, essentially doubling your risk of disaster.
At the time of the disaster, people from all over the world vowed to help.
Madonna, Carla Bruni & Obama Abandoned Pledges To Rebuild L'Aquila After The QuakeBarbie Latza Nadeau
November 18, 2014
Historical Examples
On Sidney—and in less measure, of course, on K.—fell the real brunt of the disaster.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
So he caught their minds as he had caught the Stick, swinging back from disaster.
The Trail BookMary Austin
Verily their way shall be filled with disaster; lo, then we shall rest.
The Babylonian Legends of the CreationBritish Museum
No good can come of it—no good has ever come of it—nothing but disaster and trouble.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
On Mike's face was a map of disaster; the disaster might be trivial or great.
ThoroughbredsW. A. Fraser
disaster
- an occurrence that causes great distress or destruction
- a thing, project, etc, that fails or has been ruined
Show More
Word Origin
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
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for disaster
n.
1590s, from Middle French désastre (1560s), from Italian disastro "ill-starred," from dis-, here merely pejorative (see dis-) + astro "star, planet," from Latin astrum, from Greek astron (see star (n.)). The sense is astrological, of a calamity blamed on an unfavorable position of a planet.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper