Word.ws English Dictionary

catastrophizes

catastrophizes is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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.

Questions about catastrophizes

What is catastrophizes the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Catastrophizes is the third-person singular simple present indicative of catastrophize.

Words near catastrophizes in the dictionary

  1. catastrophizations
  2. catastrophize
  3. catastrophized
  4. catastrophizer
  5. catastrophizers
  6. catastrophizes
  7. catastrophizing
  8. catastrophy
  9. catastrophë
  10. catastroscope
  11. catataxis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: catastrophizes (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: “catastrophizes.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catastrophizes. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.