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cataclysm
[ kat-uh-kliz-uhm ]
noun
- any violent upheaval, especially one of a social or political nature.
- Physical Geography. a sudden and violent physical action producing changes in the earth's surface.
- an extensive flood; deluge.
cataclysm
/ ˈkætəˌklɪzəm /
noun
- a violent upheaval, esp of a political, military, or social nature
- a disastrous flood; deluge
- geology another name for catastrophe
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Derived Forms
- ˌcataˈclysmic, adjective
- ˌcataˈclysmically, adverb
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Word History and Origins
Origin of cataclysm1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of cataclysm1
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Synonym Study
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Example Sentences
In the cataclysm that followed, the survival of republican government indeed was in peril.
The reader feels the personal cataclysm of four kibbutznik paratroopers as their universe falls from grace.
That generic description of right-wing economics, however, is too vague to capture specific cataclysm that occurred in 2008.
And I wanted to know what (besides the obvious cataclysm of 9/11) had turned him into such a radical voice on the subject.
The poet remains coolly detached: a circumspect observer in the face of cataclysm.
I see unutterable defeat, the success of the rebellion, a great catastrophe, a moral and physical cataclysm.
Back had they gone to town, and then came the cataclysm of noon.
The aftermath of the war is a spiritual cataclysm such as civilized mankind has never before known.
The legend begins with a deluge myth; a cataclysm ended a period of human existence.
Nothing short of a seismic cataclysm—an earthquake, in fact—could deter a San Francisco audience after that.
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