disaster
Other forms: disasters
An earthquake, an oil spill, an economic collapse, a party with inedible food and truly awful music: Each of these could be described as a disaster, a cataclysmic event causing extreme suffering, even total destruction.
Disaster made its way into the English language from Greek. The second part of the word is derived from astron — "star" or "planet," familiar from words like astronomy and astronaut. Dis- is prefix with a meaning similar to "un-" or "mis-," but with clearly negative connotations. Translated literally, disaster means "bad or unlucky star," and it's a relic of a time when astrology was considered a serious science that could predict events — including disasters you might try to avoid — in your life on Earth!
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an event resulting in great loss and misfortune“the earthquake was a disaster”synonyms: calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, tragedytypes:act of God, force majeure, inevitable accident, unavoidable casualty, vis majora natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of eventsapocalypsea cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evilfaminea severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and deathkiss of deathsomething that is ruinousmeltdowna disaster comparable to a nuclear meltdownplagueany large-scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God)visitationany disaster or catastrophetidal wavean unusual (and often destructive) rise of water along the seashore caused by a storm or a combination of wind and high tidetsunamia cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruptionthe Great Calamity, the Great Hunger, the Great Starvation, the Irish Faminea famine in Ireland resulting from a potato blight; between 1846 and 1851 a million people starved to death and 1.6 million emigrated (most to America)type of:
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a state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune
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an act that has disastrous consequencestype of:destruction, devastationthe termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or no longer exists
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Vocabulary lists containing disaster
The stars and planets have given us lots of words, but some of them are unexpected. How many of these do you know?
The Greek and Latin words for "sun" and "star" can be seen in many terms that we use today. In honor of the Summer Solstice, learn this list of stellar words and make your vocabulary shine!
Whether your soufflé collapsed or there's an asteroid headed for the Earth, one of these words is sure to fit every bad situation.