Word.ws English Dictionary

cataclysm

/ˈkætəˌklɪzm̩/

cataclysm noun: a sudden, violent event.

Noun

cataclysm (plural cataclysms)

  1. A sudden, violent event.
    • While the disaster capitalism complex does not deliberately scheme to create cataclysms on which it feeds (though Iraq may be a notable exception), there is plenty of evidence that its component industries work very hard indeed to make that current disastrous trends continue unchallenged.2007, Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine, Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt, →ISBN, page 427
    • Judging by the sedimentary composition of the crust, it appears that Altaaya once possessed an atmosphere thick enough to support some form of liquid. What cataclysm stripped the atmosphere and left the planet to freeze is not currently known.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Altaaya Codex entry
  2. A sudden and violent change in the earth's crust.
  3. A great flood.

cataclysm meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

cataclysm in Tamil

கடும்புரட்டு

cataclysm in Urdu

sudden, violent event
قیامت qayamat

cataclysm in Bengali

প্রলয়ঙ্করী বন্যা, বিপর্যয়

cataclysm in Malayalam

വിപ്ലവം, ജലപ്രളയം, അത്യാപത്ത്, ആകസ്മിക വിപത്ത്
More languagesFewer languages
cataclysm in Kannada
ಪ್ರಳಯ, ವಿಪ್ಲವ

Forms of cataclysm

pluralcataclysms

Plural of cataclysm: cataclysms

Origin of cataclysm

From French cataclysme, from Latin cataclysmus, from Ancient Greek κατακλυσμός (kataklusmós, “deluge, flood”), from κατακλύζω (kataklúzō, “to dash over, flood, deluge, inundate”), from κατά (katá, “downwards, towards”) + κλύζω (klúzō, “to wash off, to wash away, to dash over”).

Words formed from cataclysm

Questions about cataclysm

What does cataclysm mean?
Cataclysm means a sudden, violent event.
What is cataclysm in Tamil?
Cataclysm in Tamil is கடும்புரட்டு. See Cataclysm meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cataclysm?
Cataclysm is a noun.
How do you pronounce cataclysm?
Cataclysm is pronounced /ˈkætəˌklɪzm̩/.
What is the plural of cataclysm?
The plural of cataclysm is cataclysms.

Words near cataclysm in the dictionary

  1. cataclasm
  2. cataclasms
  3. cataclastic
  4. catacline
  5. cataclines
  6. cataclysm
  7. cataclysmal
  8. cataclysmatic
  9. cataclysmatist
  10. cataclysmatists
  11. cataclysmic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cataclysm (page history and authors); cataclysm (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cataclysm (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cataclysm (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cataclysm (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cataclysm.wav.

Cite this entry: “cataclysm.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cataclysm. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.