Catastrophe

//kəˈtæstɹəfi// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any large and disastrous event of great significance. countable, uncountable

    "The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophe."

  2. 2
    an event resulting in great loss and misfortune wordnet
  3. 3
    A disaster beyond expectations. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a sudden violent change in the earth's surface wordnet
  5. 5
    The dramatic event that initiates the resolution of the plot; the dénouement. countable, uncountable

    "Pat : he comes like the Cataſtrophe of the old Comedie : my Cue is villanous Melancholly, with a ſighe like Tom o’ Bedlam."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    a state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune wordnet
  2. 7
    A type of bifurcation, where a system shifts between two stable states. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
calamitycataclysmdisasteraccidentactionaffliction

Example

More examples

"Few passengers survived the catastrophe."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek καταστροφή (katastrophḗ), from καταστρέφω (katastréphō, “I overturn”), from κατά (katá, “down, against”) + στρέφω (stréphō, “I turn”).

Related phrases

Carter catastrophecat bondcatastrophe bondcatastrophe theoryclimate catastrophecosy catastrophecozy catastropheerror catastropheoxygen catastropheoxygenation catastropheultraviolet catastrophevacuum catastrophe

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.