disaster

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun

An unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent change to the natural environment.
An unforeseen event causing great loss, upset or unpleasantness of whatever kind.
A skateboard trick involving a 180-degree ollie, landing on the center of the board with the front trucks facing towards the ramp and the back trucks over the lip. The skater then leans forwards to return in the ramp.

Pronunciation

/dɪˈzɑːs.təː/ [dɪˈzɑːs.təː] /dɪˈzas.təː/ /dəˈzäːs.təː/ [dəˈzäːs.təː] /dəˈzɐ̞ːs.təː/ [dəˈzɐ̞ːs.təː] /dɪˈzæs.tɚ/ [dɪˈzæs.tʰɚ] ~ [dɪˈzæs.tʰɹ̩] en-us-disaster.ogg /dəˈzæs.tɚ/ [dəˈzæs.tʰɚ] ~ [dəˈzæs.tʰɹ̩]

Word forms

disaster disasters disastre

Etymology

From Middle French desastre, from Italian disastro, from dis- + astro (“star”), from Latin astrum (“star”), from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂stḗr.

Synonyms

adversity apocalypse calamity catastrophe disaster misery qualm woe

Related words

misfortune accident dumpster fire mishap misadventure mischance tire fire disastrous disastrously

Derived words

blizzaster disaster area disasterclass disaster film disaster flora disasterless disasterly disaster movie disasteroid disasterpiece disaster tourism disaster tourist disaster waiting to happen disastrophe ecodisaster megadisaster minidisaster natural disaster nondisaster post-disaster postdisaster predisaster recipe for disaster

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

Back to search All on D Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary