catastrophise
catastrophise is the non-Oxford British English form of catastrophize.
Meaning of catastrophize
Verb
catastrophize (third-person singular simple present catastrophizes, present participle catastrophizing, simple past and past participle catastrophized)
- To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic.
- To expose a behavior pattern of seeking the worst interpretation and magnifying the disagreeable outcomes (of).
- Particularly likely to overreact are those who tend to catastrophize (Ellis, 1962) and those who have Type A personalities (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974).1947, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, University of Michigan Research Center for Group Dynamics, Human Relations
- Synonyms:
- awfulize
- To end a comedy.
Forms of catastrophise
| third-person singular present | catastrophises |
|---|---|
| present participle | catastrophising |
| past participle | catastrophised |
| past | catastrophised |
Words formed from catastrophise
Questions about catastrophise
- What is catastrophise the non-Oxford British English form of?
- Catastrophise is the non-Oxford British English form of catastrophize.
Words near catastrophise in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: catastrophise (page history and authors); catastrophize (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “catastrophise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catastrophise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
