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catastrophe

[kuh-tas-truh-fee]

Origin

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noun

a sudden and widespread disaster: the catastrophe of war.

any misfortune, mishap, or failure; fiasco: The play was so poor our whole evening was a catastrophe.

a final event or conclusion, usually an unfortunate one; a disastrous end: the great catastrophe of the Old South at Appomattox.

(in a drama) the point at which the circumstances overcome the central motive, introducing the close or conclusion; dénouement. Compare catastasis, epitasis, protasis.

Geology. a sudden, violent disturbance, especially of a part of the surface of the earth; cataclysm.

EXPAND

Also called catastrophe function. Mathematics. any of the mathematical functions that describe the discontinuities that are treated in catastrophe theory.

COLLAPSE

Origin:
1570–80; < Greek katastrophḗ an overturning, akin to katastréphein to overturn. See cata-, strophe

Related forms

cat·a·stroph·ic

[kat-uh-strof-ik] , cat·a·stroph·i·cal, ca·tas·tro·phal, adjective

su·per·ca·tas·tro·phe, noun

Synonyms
1. misfortune, calamity. 1, 3. See disaster.

Antonyms
1, 3. triumph.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Catastrophe is always a great word to know.

So is loam. Does it mean:

rich soil containing a relatively equal mixture of sand, silt and a smaller proportion of clay

capability of a porous rock or sediment to permit the flow of fluids through its pore spaces

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Collins

World English Dictionary

catastrophe (kəˈtæstrəfɪ)

—n
1.	a sudden, extensive, or notable disaster or misfortune
2.	the denouement of a play, esp a classical tragedy
3.	a final decisive event, usually causing a disastrous end
4.	Also called: cataclysm any sudden and violent change in the earth's surface caused by flooding, earthquake, or some other rapid process

[C16: from Greek katastrophē, from katastrephein to overturn, from strephein to turn]

catastrophic

—*adj*

cata'strophically

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

catastrophe

1540, "reversal of what is expected" (especially a fatal turning point in a drama), from Gk. katastrephein "to overturn," from kata "down" + strephein "turn" (see strophe). Extension to "sudden disaster" is first recorded 1748.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia

catastrophe

in literature, the final action that completes the unraveling of the plot in a play, especially in a tragedy. Catastrophe is a synonym of denouement. The term is sometimes applied to a similar action in a novel or story.

Learn more about catastrophe with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Matching Quote

"It's a queer sensation, this secret belief that one stands on the brink of the world's greatest catastrophe. For it means the fall of Western Europe, as it fell in the fourth century. It recurs to me every November, and culminates every December. I have to get over it as I can, and hide, for fear of being sent to an asylum."

-Henry Brooks Adams

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