disaster
[ dih-zas-ter, -zah-ster ]
/ dɪˈzæs tər, -ˈzɑ stər /
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.
SYNONYMS FOR disaster
QUIZZES
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We’ve gathered some interesting words donated to English from Portuguese … as well as some that just don’t translate at all. Do you know what they mean?
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Which of the following animal names traces its immediate origin to Portuguese?
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
Example sentences from the Web for disaster
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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