Cataclysm
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A sudden, violent event.
"While the disaster capitalism complex does not deliberately scheme to create cataclysms on which it feeds (though Iraq may be a notable exception), there is plenty of evidence that its component industries work very hard indeed to make that current disastrous trends continue unchallenged."
- 2 an event resulting in great loss and misfortune wordnet
- 3 A sudden and violent change in the earth's crust.
- 4 a sudden violent change in the earth's surface wordnet
- 5 A great flood.
Example
More examples"On the anniversary of the cataclysm, there was an upsurge in zombie attacks."
Etymology
From French cataclysme, from Latin cataclysmus, from Ancient Greek κατακλυσμός (kataklusmós, “deluge, flood”), from κατακλύζω (kataklúzō, “to dash over, flood, deluge, inundate”), from κατά (katá, “downwards, towards”) + κλύζω (klúzō, “to wash off, to wash away, to dash over”).
Related phrases
More for "cataclysm"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.