Hypertext Webster Gateway: "catastrophe"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Catastrophe \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.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
catastrophe
n 1: an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; "the whole
city was affected by the irremediable calamity"; "the
earthquake was a disaster" [syn: {calamity}, {disaster},
{tragedy}, {cataclysm}]
2: 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"
[syn: {disaster}]
3: a sudden violent change in the earth's surface [syn: {cataclysm}]
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