Catastrophic

//kætəˈstɹɒfɪk// adj

adj ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of or pertaining to a catastrophe.
  2. 2
    Disastrous; ruinous.

    "The reason why Jon & Kate Plus 8 is such a hot topic is because it might all be a sham. It’s been claimed that Jon has a string of mistresses, that Kate had an affair with her bodyguard and that Baby Number Six is actually a shaved Ewok with a catastrophic heroin addiction. Or something."

  3. 3
    From which recovery is impossible.

    "catastrophic failure"

Adjective
  1. 1
    extremely harmful; bringing physical or financial ruin wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
calamitouscataclysmicdevastatingdisastrousbanefulblack

Example

More examples

"The consequence of a wrong translation can sometimes be catastrophic."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek καταστροφικός (katastrophikós). By surface analysis, catastrophe + -ic.

Related phrases

catastrophic antiphospholipid syndromecatastrophic backtrackingcatastrophic failurecatastrophic forgettingcatastrophic interferencecatastrophic killcatastrophic mortalitycatastrophic moult

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