Word.ws English Dictionary

catastrophized

UK/kəˈstɹɒfəˌsaɪzd/US/kəˈstɹɑfəˌsaɪzd/

catastrophized is the simple past and past participle of catastrophize.

Meaning of catastrophize

Verb

catastrophize (third-person singular simple present catastrophizes, present participle catastrophizing, simple past and past participle catastrophized)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic.
  2. (intransitive, transitive) 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
  3. (obsolete) To end a comedy.

Adjective

catastrophized (comparative more catastrophized, superlative most catastrophized)

  1. Exposing catastrophizing attitude.
    • The public is much too bewildered, catastrophized, and morbidly concerned about the symptoms of COVID-19.2022 May 26, Xue Lan, Han Yu, Lei Cui, “Application of Telemedicine in COVID-19: A Bibliometric Analysis”, in Frontiers in Public Health, →DOI

Forms of catastrophized

comparativemore catastrophized
superlativemost catastrophized

Questions about catastrophized

What does catastrophized mean?
Catastrophized means exposing catastrophizing attitude.
What is catastrophized the simple past and past participle of?
Catastrophized is the simple past and past participle of catastrophize.
What part of speech is catastrophized?
Catastrophized is an adjective.
How do you pronounce catastrophized?
Catastrophized is pronounced /kəˈstɹɑfəˌsaɪzd/ (US).

Words near catastrophized in the dictionary

  1. catastrophist
  2. catastrophists
  3. catastrophization
  4. catastrophizations
  5. catastrophize
  6. catastrophized
  7. catastrophizer
  8. catastrophizers
  9. catastrophizes
  10. catastrophizing
  11. catastrophy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catastrophized (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.

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