disaster

[dih-zas-ter, -zah-ster]

noun

1. 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

2. Obsolete.,  an unfavorable aspect of a star or planet.

disaster

/ dɪˈzɑːstə /

noun

1. an occurrence that causes great distress or destruction

2. a thing, project, etc, that fails or has been ruined

Other Word Forms

• predisaster noun
• disastrous adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of disaster¹

First recorded in 1585–95; from Middle French desastre, from Italian disastro, from dis- dis- ¹ + astro “star” (from Latin astrum, from Greek ástron )

Word History and Origins

Origin of disaster¹

C16 (originally in the sense: malevolent astral influence): from Italian disastro, from dis- (pejorative) + astro star, from Latin astrum, from Greek astron

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

At least three people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes as a typhoon ripped through the central Philippines, the country's disaster agency said.

Read more on BBC

Seven people died in that disaster, including three Italians, two Nepalis, a German and a French climber, Phurba Tenjing Sherpa, from expedition organiser Dreamers Destination, told AFP.

Read more on Barron's

An EU failure to agree a 10-year emissions-cutting target ahead of next week's UN climate summit would spell "disaster", France warned Tuesday as a crunch meeting began in Brussels.

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Lawyers for US aviation giant Boeing and the families of victims of a fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash will give opening statements Tuesday in the first civil trial stemming from the disaster.

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The "unlawfully killed" Hillsborough disaster victims and their families were failed by the British state, the prime minister has told MPs.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• calamity 
• catastrophe 
• collapse 
• crash 
• debacle 
• defeat 
• emergency 
• failure 
• fiasco 
• flood 
• harm 
• hazard 
• holocaust 
• mishap 
• setback 
• tragedy 
• woe