Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An event that brings terrible loss, lasting distress, or severe affliction; a disaster: A hurricane would be a calamity for this low-lying coastal region.
- n. Dire distress resulting from loss or tragedy.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Any great misfortune or cause of misery; in general, any event or disaster which produces extensive evils, as loss of crops, earthquakes, etc., but also applied to any misfortune which brings great distress upon a single person; misfortune; distress; adversity.
- n. Synonyms Disaster, Catastrophe, etc. (see misfortune), hardship, adversity, affliction, blow, stroke.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Any great misfortune or cause of misery; -- generally applied to events or disasters which produce extensive evil, either to communities or individuals.
- n. A state or time of distress or misfortune; misery.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
Etymologies
- Latin clāmāre ("to shout, proclaim, declare, cry out"); Latin calamitās ("loss, damage; disaster"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English calamite, from Old French, from Latin calamitās. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Happening now, Robert Gates officially taking charge of the Pentagon and the troubled war in Iraq with a swearing in ceremony -- he's warning that failure in Iraq would be what he called a calamity that would haunt the U.S. -- his words -- for decades.”
“A few pale figures were to be distinguished at the accustomed resort at the Tuileries; they wondered wherefore the islanders should approach their ill-fated city -- for in the excess of wretchedness, the sufferers always imagine, that their part of the calamity is the bitterest, as, when enduring intense pain, we would exchange the particular torture we writhe under, for any other which should visit a different part of the frame.”
“This calamity is the more heavy, as it carries with it a great disappointment; for very near our habitation was a high wall, the sunny side of which was covered with the most delicious fruits; peaches, apricots, nectarines, &c. all just then ripening; and I thought of having such a feast with my children as I had never enjoyed in my life.”
“The prediction of this calamity is here given very largely, and in lively expressions, which one would think should have awakened and affected the most stupid.”
“Judge will speedily take vengeance; the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume VI (Acts to Revelation)
“The hidden hand behind this unsanitary calamity is the US government.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Unfortunately, I Have Lately Had Cause to Lament the Same Thing
““An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen,” he writes.”
“A calamity is the shortage of such utensils as sweepers, brooms, brushes and rags for cleaning.”
“When deviant behaviour exists with the cowardly behaviour of leaders, calamity is the next step.”
Why front-line police officers are glad about Dizaei « POLICE INSPECTOR BLOG
“This calamity is exactly what happened to my Uncle Joseph, who was removed from my grandparents when he was a toddler and sent to the Texas State School because he had begun acting out in rage at his inability to communicate with others.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘calamity’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Situation Normal
inspired by Mistakes Were Made. Words for things going wrong in a manner particularly violent, stupid, soul-crushing, boggling, grandiose, or any combination of these qualities.
writeoff, wreck, bust, washout, turkey, untergang, undoing, total loss, flop, muck up, louse-up, goof-up and 156 more...
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ze list
favorites, of all sorts
obscure, pretentious, debacle, vintage, ostentatious, damsel, plethora, requiem, memoir, loathe, lackadaisical, misanthropic and 82 more...
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That Could Have Gone Better
dud, flop, fiasco, debacle, failure, learning experience, wash, doa, epic fail, bomb, crash and burn, bungle and 41 more...
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Jenni's List
My Favorite Words
splendiferous, wonderous, calamity, foregone, magnanimous, benevolent, hullabaloo, pandemonium, hubbub, brouhaha, ballyhoo
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
bumwank, calamity, recalcitrant, gayenese, jeeze, nonsense, flabbergasted, juxtapose, procrastinating, ossanity, biffing, loser and 1972 more... -
Words I Know
List of most of the words I've learned
garner, abase, abate, abdicate, abduct, aberration, abet, abhor, abide, abject, abjure, abnegation and 1046 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
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elvesoncrack's Words
lachrymose, blustering, fjord, chihuahua, chiffon, catalytic, stile, gefilte, prosh, thwart, ralph, ickle and 379 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (C)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
cacophony, cad, cajole, calamity, camomile, camphor, candlemas, candy apple, canopy, canticle, caparison, caravan and 304 more...
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my list
executive, oxide, slang, paddy, calamity, pledge, carved, deliberate, vastly, tolerate, simultaneous, ornamental and 114 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for calamity.
everett I can't help but be slightly amused whenever I hear this word, even when it's used in the context of horrible disasters. I had been having trouble figuring out why, but I think I've got it: the first place I heard it was probably the television show Tiny Toon Adventures, on which there was a character called "Calamity Coyote."
It's amazing how, at least for me, my first exposure to a word can permanently color my perception of it. May 3, 2010