polycrisis

P3O1L1Y4C3R1I1S1I1S1
/ˈpɒliˌkraɪsɪs/

noun

A series of crises occurring at the same time.

Scrabble 17

Meanings

nounpolycrisis (plural polycrises)

plural polycrises

  1. neologismeconomicsA series of crises occurring at the same time.

    South Africa finds itself in a polycrisis in terms of dealing with economic development, to alleviate poverty, within water and energy constraints (see fig. 2).

    2011, Y. Villacampa Esteve, C. A. Brebbia, Andrea Alberto Mammoli, Energy and Sustainability III, WIT Press, →ISBN, page 16
    5 more examples

    The first implies an ethics of sufficiency and cooperation which undercut the capitalist values of individualism and crass materialism that are of little use when it comes to considering alternatives to the polycrises we now face.

    2012, Mark Swilling, Eve Annecke, Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World, United Nations Univ

    If cities are to have a sustainable future, are to respond to the poly-crises and are to provide the necessary opportunities for future populations, the governance roles in responding and adapting to all aspects demand a very different view of governance and leadership within the city.

    2013 March 1, Bruce Frayne, Caroline Moser, Gina Ziervogel, Climate Change, Assets and Food Security in Southern African Cities, Routledge, →ISBN

    It should also be said that the economic sphere is increasingly understood to be intricately connected to the ecological – as two sides of the same coin – and in many ways community development, deeply influenced by the broader 'development literature', has been reconstructed by the ecological polycrises upon us […].

    2016 February 17, Peter Westoby, Theorising the Practice of Community Development: A South African Perspective, Routledge, →ISBN

    In Palestine, polycrises constitute the everyday rhythm of life; cityscapes are saturated with colonial social relations across all scales; and othering and socio-spatial disconnects have become the channels through which economic exploitation, the furthering of dependencies, and the Israeli colonial project are enabled.

    2021 August 9, Linda Peake, Elsa Koleth, Gokboru Sarp Tanyildiz, Rajyashree N. Reddy, darren patrick/dp, A Feminist Urban Theory for Our Time: Rethinking Social Reproduction and the Urban, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 187

    But the exchange feeds into an ever-more-common discourse: that the UK is facing “polycrisis” in almost every facet of life in Britain. From courts to the cost of living, transport to healthcare, environment to the asylum system – everywhere appears to be affected.

    2022 December 30, Pamela Duncan, Carmen Aguilar García, Michael Goodier, “Inflation, waiting lists, strikes, rail chaos, climate emergency: the 2022 polycrisis”, in The Guardian

Origin

From poly- + crisis. Attested at least since the 2010s.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

French polycrise
  • polycrisemultiple crises at the same time
German Polykrise
  • Polykrisemultiple crises at the same time
Greek πολυκρίση
  • πολυκρίση (polykrísi)multiple crises at the same time
Polish wielokryzys, polikryzys
  • wielokryzysmultiple crises at the same time
  • polikryzysmultiple crises at the same time
Cite this entry
APA

polycrisis. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polycrisis

MLA

“polycrisis.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polycrisis. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “polycrisis,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/polycrisis.

Source: polycrisis on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.