disastrous

[dih-zas-truhs, -zah-struhs]

adjective

1. causing great distress or injury; ruinous; very unfortunate; calamitous.

   The rain and cold proved disastrous to his health.

2. Archaic.,  foreboding disaster.

Other Word Forms

• disastrously adverb
• disastrousness noun
• nondisastrous adjective
• nondisastrously adverb
• nondisastrousness noun
• predisastrous adjective
• predisastrously adverb
• quasi-disastrous adjective
• quasi-disastrously adverb
• undisastrous adjective
• undisastrously adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of disastrous¹

1580–90; < Middle French desastreux, Italian disastroso. See disaster, -ous

Example Sentences

That would have disastrous consequences, most immediately for the congregations and people themselves.

Read more on Salon

Bets on the wrong technology can also be disastrous.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Ruby Rose has entered the ring to take a swing at Sydney Sweeney — blaming the actor, now known for her choice in jeans, for “Christy’s” disastrous debut.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Macron also pointed to the "particularly shocking Russian threat of nuclear weapons in space, the effects of which would be disastrous for the whole world".

Read more on Barron's

The disastrous meltdown cycle was about to begin again.

Read more on Literature

Related Words

• adverse 
• calamitous 
• cataclysmic 
• catastrophic 
• destructive 
• dire 
• dreadful 
• fatal 
• fateful 
• harmful 
• ill-fated 
• ruinous 
• terrible 
• tragic 
• unfavorable 
• unfortunate