CALAMITY
Dictionary entry overview: What does calamity mean?
• CALAMITY (noun)
The noun CALAMITY has 1 sense:
1. an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
Familiarity information: CALAMITY used as a noun is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
• CALAMITY (noun)
Meaning:
An event resulting in great loss and misfortune
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural events
Synonyms:
calamity; catastrophe; tragedy; cataclysm; disaster
Context examples:
the whole city was affected by the irremediable calamity / the earthquake was a disaster
Hypernyms ("calamity" is a kind of...):
bad luck; misfortune (unnecessary and unforeseen trouble resulting from an unfortunate event)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "calamity"):
act of God; force majeure; inevitable accident; unavoidable casualty; vis major (a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events)
apocalypse (a cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil)
famine (a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death)
kiss of death (something that is ruinous)
meltdown (a disaster comparable to a nuclear meltdown)
plague (any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God))
visitation (any disaster or catastrophe)
tidal wave (an unusual (and often destructive) rise of water along the seashore caused by a storm or a combination of wind and high tide)
tsunami (a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption)
