CATASTROPHES Synonyms: 73 Similar and Opposite Words

catastrophes

noun

plural of catastrophe

as in disasters

a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction more than one natural catastrophe has threatened to destroy their farm over the years

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as in failures

something that has failed the movie was a catastrophe, nearly bankrupting the studio that produced it

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Recent Examples of catastrophes That didn’t stop catastrophes like the 2018 fire in the Sierra foothills that destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85. — Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026 Experts warn that catastrophes like this are likely to happen again because rising temperatures in the Himalayas, which are warming faster than the global average, destabilize the region's 60,000 glaciers and trigger more avalanches. — Brittney Melton, NPR, 27 Aug. 2026 The road to Sylvan Esso’s radiant new album began with a cascade of delays and catastrophes. — Steve Appleford, SPIN, 25 Aug. 2026 The contrast is a reminder of the differences between the neighboring nations — their political systems, resources and the strength of their institutions — and a demonstration of how those can take on life-or-death importance in catastrophes. — ABC News, 13 Aug. 2026 The company’s founder, Jeff Bezos, envisions building space habitats that could house billions as a solution to environmental catastrophes on Earth. — Marissa E. Yingling, The Conversation, 12 Aug. 2026 These include more defense spending, dealing with environmental catastrophes, and of course the political demands driven by populism. — Kenneth S. Rogoff, Foreign Affairs, 12 Aug. 2026 The warning comes despite the decline in insured losses tied to natural catastrophes in the first half of 2026. — Bloomberg, Fortune, 11 Aug. 2026 Of course, this growing mass constitutes a serious threat to the ocean ecosystem, not to mention the environmental catastrophes regularly caused by tanker accidents themselves. — Alexander Klose, Scientific American, 24 July 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for catastrophes

Noun

Being able to better understand these trends and know what tools will be available to manage them could thus do much to shore up food networks and prepare for disasters.

— Anna Nelson, Foreign Affairs, 4 Sep. 2026
China is often slow to release complete information on the death toll of major disasters.

— ABC News, ABC News, 4 Sep. 2026

Definition of disasters

Noun

Summary The Lindsay Clancy case, involving postpartum psychosis, highlights critical gaps in maternal health support and systemic failures.

— Forbes.com, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026
Fifty years on, these songs capture the feelings and failures not of Los Angeles but of America, too.

— Grayson Haver Currin, Pitchfork, 30 Aug. 2026

Definition of failures

Noun

Based on Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, the surrealist musical follows one nuclear family across thousands of years and three apocalypses.

— Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
And a lot of the pseudepigrapha, like the fake gospels and fake apocalypses, fill in gaps in the record that can serve latter-day, post-biblical purposes.

— JSTOR Daily, JSTOR Daily, 16 Oct. 2025

Definition of apocalypses

Noun

The latter is embodied by an underground race of telepathic mutants who worship an unexploded nuclear bomb and find themselves in conflict with the apes, as well as the few surviving humans, on the way to a finale that out-tragedies the original.

— Jesse Hassenger, Entertainment Weekly, 2 Sep. 2026
The fire was among Pakistan’s deadliest recent tragedies involving children.

— ABC News, ABC News, 30 Aug. 2026

Definition of tragedies

Noun

To avert future calamities, the forest outside Bordeaux must be thinned and its fire breaks widened, said Arthur Guérin-Turcq, a Sorbonne University geographer whose family cultivates pines near Le Porge.

— Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026
Indeed, conflict and calamities are major factors in financial repression.

— Jason Ma, Fortune, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of calamities

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catastrophe

catastrophes

catastrophic

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“Catastrophes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/catastrophes. Accessed 6 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of catastrophes

noun

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