Nearby Words
noun
1.
a sudden and widespread disaster: the catastrophe of war.
2.
any misfortune, mishap, or failure; fiasco: The play was so poor our whole evening was a catastrophe.
3.
a final event or conclusion, usually an unfortunate one; a disastrous end: the great catastrophe of the Old South at Appomattox.
4.
(in a drama) the point at which the circumstances overcome the central motive, introducing the close or conclusion; dénouement. Compare catastasis, epitasis, protasis.
5.
EXPANDGeology. a sudden, violent disturbance, especially of a part of the surface of the earth; cataclysm.
6.
COLLAPSEAlso called catastrophe function. Mathematics. any of the mathematical functions that describe the discontinuities that are treated in catastrophe theory.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source
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Link To catastrophes
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Catastrophes
is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
| the offspring of a zebra and a donkey. |
| a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question. |
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.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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