apocalypse
Meanings
- A revealing, especially a prophecy of, or the unfolding of, supernatural events.
- A huge disaster; a cataclysmic event; destruction or ruin of large scope and scale.
- The unveiling of events prophesied in the Revelation; the second coming and the end of life on Earth; global destruction.
- The Book of Revelation.
- To reveal.
- To dwell on a huge disaster one expects to take place.
- To bring about (a huge disaster).
- The written account of a revelation of hidden things given by God to a chosen prophet.
- Revelation (last book of the Bible, composed of twenty-two chapters, which narrates a vision of the end times).
- Armageddon: the destructive end of the world.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Hellenic *apó Ancient Greek ᾰ̓πό (ăpó) Ancient Greek ᾰ̓πο- (ăpo-) Ancient Greek κᾰλῠ́πτω (kălŭ́ptō) Ancient Greek ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalúptō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Ancient Greek -τις (-tis) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Ancient Greek ᾰ̓ποκᾰ́λῠψῐς (ăpokắlŭpsĭs)der. Latin apocalypsisbor. Middle English apocalips English apocalypse From Middle English apocalips, from Latin apocalypsis, from Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis, “revelation”, literally “uncovering”), from ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalúptō, “to reveal”), from ἀπό (apó, “back, away from”) + καλύπτω (kalúptō, “to cover”), + -σις (-sis, suffix forming nouns). The sense evolution to "catastrophe, end of the world" stems from the depiction of such events in the biblical Book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse of (i.e. Revelation to) John. The verb is from the noun and, in sense 1, a semantic loan from the etymonic Ancient Greek verb ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalúptō, “to reveal”).