catastrophe

plural catastrophes · alternative archaic catastrophë

1. countableuncountableAny large and disastrous event of great significance.

   The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophe.

   4 more examples

   Last night, after the brief sitting of the House of Lords, and before catastrophe befell the Government in the Commons, I had a long chat with the Premier, in which he discussed the Home Rule question and his relations with it in perfectly frank manner.

   1896, Henry W[illiam] Lucy, “[Session 1894.] A Bad Beginning.”, in A Diary of the Home Rule Parliament, 1892-1895, London; Paris; Melbourne, Vic.: Cassell and Company, Limited, page 320

   Between these high lights accumulated disaster, social catastrophe.

   1913, H. G. Wells, “The New Source of Energy”, in The World Set Free, New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, pages 54–55

   Am I not a man? And is a man not stupid? I'm a man, so I married. Wife, children, house, everything. The full catastrophe.

   1964, Nikos Kazantzakis, Michael Cacoyannis, Zorba the Greek, spoken by Alexis Zorba (Anthony Quinn)

   For years, Mao Da, an environmental researcher, has studied the plastic industry in Wen’an County, near Beijing. Workers there used to sort through food and medical waste by hand, he said. Nonrecyclable material was buried in pits near farmland. “It was an environmental and public health catastrophe,” Mr. Mao said.

   2019 May 28, Raymond Zhong, Carolyn Zhang, “Food Delivery Apps Are Drowning China in Plastic”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 May 2019, Technology

2. countableuncountablebusinessA disaster beyond expectations.
3. countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe dramatic event that initiates the resolution of the plot; the dénouement.

   Pat : he comes like the Cataſtrophe of the old Comedie : my Cue is villanous Melancholly, with a ſighe like Tom o’ Bedlam.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 286, column 2

4. countableuncountablemathematicsA type of bifurcation, where a system shifts between two stable states.