Meaning of CATASTROPHE
| Pronunciation: | | ku'tastrufee
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 WordNet Dictionary |
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- [n] an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; "the whole city was affected by the irremediable calamity"; "the earthquake was a disaster"
- [n] a sudden violent change in the earth's surface
- [n] a state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune; "lack of funds has resulted in a catastrophe for our school system"; "his policies were a disaster"
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| | Synonyms: | | calamity, cataclysm, cataclysm, disaster, disaster, tragedy |
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| | See Also: | | act of God, adversity, apocalypse, bad luck, force majeure, geological phenomenon, hardship, inevitable accident, kiss of death, misfortune, plague, unavoidable casualty, vis major, visitation | |
| Products Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | |  Catastrophe
Description not available. more details ... |
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| Webster's 1913 Dictionary |
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| | Definition: | | \Ca*tas"tro*phe\, n. [L. catastropha, Gr. ?, fr. ?
to turn up and down, to overturn; kata` down + ? to turn.]
1. An event producing a subversion of the order or system of
things; a final event, usually of a calamitous or
disastrous nature; hence, sudden calamity; great
misfortune.
The strange catastrophe of affairs now at London.
--Bp. Burnet.
The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that
nature ever yet saw. --Woodward.
2. The final event in a romance or a dramatic piece; a
denouement, as a death in a tragedy, or a marriage in a
comedy.
3. (Geol.) A violent and widely extended change in the
surface of the earth, as, an elevation or subsidence of
some part of it, effected by internal causes. --Whewell.
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| Thesaurus Terms |
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| | Related Terms: | | accident, action, anagnorisis, angle, apodosis, architectonics, architecture, argument, atmosphere, background, bad luck, bitter end, bloodless revolution, blow, bouleversement, breakdown, breaking up, breakup, calamity, casualty, cataclysm, cave, cave-in, ceasing, cessation, characterization, clean slate, clean sweep, climax, coda, collapse, collision, color, completion, complication, computer revolution, conclusion, consummation, continuity, contretemps, contrivance, convulsion, counterrevolution, crack of doom, crack-up, crash, culmination, curtain, curtains, death, debacle, decease, denouement, design, destination, destiny, development, device, disaster, doom, effect, end, end point, end result, ending, envoi, epilogue, episode, eschatology, expiration, fable, failure, falling action, fate, fiasco, final result, final solution, final twitch, final words, finale, finality, finis, finish, gimmick, goal, grief, ill hap, incident, izzard, last, last act, last breath, last gasp, last things, last trumpet, last words, latter end, line, local color, misadventure, mischance, misfortune, mishap, mood, motif, movement, mythos, nasty blow, omega, overthrow, overturn, palace revolution, payoff, period, peripeteia, peroration, pileup, plan, plot, quietus, radical change, recognition, resolution, resting place, revolt, revolution, revolutionary war, revulsion, rising action, scheme, secondary plot, shipwreck, shock, slant, smash, smashup, spasm, staggering blow, stoppage, stopping place, story, striking alteration, structure, subject, subplot, subversion, swan song, sweeping change, switch, tabula rasa, technological revolution, term, terminal, termination, terminus, thematic development, theme, tone, topic, total change, total loss, tragedy, transilience, twist, upset, violent change, washout, windup, wrack, wreck, Z |
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