chaos
Syllables: cha·os/ˈkeɪ.ɒs/
More pronunciations (2)Fewer pronunciations
British/ˈkɛjɔs/
chaos noun: the unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
Noun (1)
chaos (usually uncountable, plural chaoses)
- The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
- Any state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.
- to descend into chaos
- After the earthquake, the local hospital was in chaos
- A behavior of iterative nonlinear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
- One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.
- A vast chasm or abyss.
- A given medium; a space in which something exists or lives; an environment.
- What is in the centre of the earth, or is it pure element only, as Ariſtotle decrees inhabited as Paracelſus thinks with creatures, whoſe Chaos is the earth with Fairies, as the woods and waters according to him, are with Nymphes or as the ayre with ſpirits.1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Aire rectified. With a digression of the Aire.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for...
Proper noun capitalized: Chaos
Chaos
- In Greek mythology, the primordial state of disorder that exists before the creation of the world, or the first being or deity to exist.
- A planetoid and cubewano orbiting in the Kuiper belt.
- Synonyms:
- 19521 Chaos
- In the Warhammer franchise, a demonic antagonist that sends demons, monsters, warriors, and beasts to wage war on the games' setting.
- Chaos warrior, Chaos daemon
Noun (2) capitalized: CHAOS
CHAOS (uncountable)
- Initialism of congenital high airway obstruction syndrome.
- Initialism of can't have anyone over syndrome.
chaos meaning in Hindi, Kannada, Odia and Tagalog
chaos in Hindi
- state of disorder
- अव्यवस्था avyavasthā
chaos in Kannada
- ಅವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ
chaos in Odia
- ବିଶୃଙ୍ଖଳା
chaos in Tagalog
- in classical cosmogony
- dimayaw
- state of disorder
- dimayaw, kaguluhan
- mathematics
- dimayaw
More languagesFewer languages
- chaos in Arabic
- فَوْضَى fawḍā
- chaos in Malay
- huru hara
- chaos in Indonesian
- kekacauan, prahara
- chaos in Persian
- آشوب âšub
- chaos in Thai
- ความยุ่งเหยิง kwaam-yûng-yə̌əng, ความโกลาหล kwaam-goo-laa-hǒn, ความสับสนวุ่นวาย, ความอลวน
- chaos in Vietnamese
- hỗn loạn
Examples of chaos in a sentence
- I love the one where he orders a cup of tea but then chaos ensues! LOL!
- The office fell into chaos when you left, but now order is back.
- The excitement in the room began to verge on chaos.
Synonyms of chaos
- 19521 Chaos
- disorder
Antonyms
Forms of chaos
| plural | chaoses |
|---|
Origin of chaos
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “vast chasm, void”). Doublet of gas, which was borrowed through Dutch. Displaced native Old English dwolma. In Early Modern English, used in the sense of the original Greek word. In the meaning “primordial matter” from the 16th century. Figurative usage in the sense “confusion, disorder” from the 17th century. The technical sense in mathematics and science dates from the 1960s.
From Latin chaos (“chaos”), from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).
Words formed from chaos
- primordial chaos
- antichaos
- antichaotic
- antichaotropic
- chaogenous
- chaoite
- chaolite
- chaological
- chaologist
- chaology
- chaomancy
- chaophilia
- chaophilic
- chaoplex
- chaoplexic
- chaoplexity
- chaoplexologist
- chaoplexology
- chaoptin
- chaos cooking
- chaoslike
- chaos magic
- chaosphere
- chaos theorist
- chaos theory
- chaotic
- chaotically
- chaotician
- chaoticist
- chaoticity
- chaoticness
- chaotization
- chaotize
- chaotolerance
- chaotolerant
- chaotrope
- chaotropic
- chaotropism
- chaotropy
- controlled chaos
- homeochaos
- homeochaotic
- hyperchaotic
- nonchaotic
- nonchaotically
- nonchaotropic
- semichaotic
- unchaotic
Phrases with chaos
Words that rhyme with chaos
Questions about chaos
- What does chaos mean?
- Chaos means the unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
- What is chaos in Hindi?
- Chaos in Hindi is अव्यवस्था (avyavasthā). See Chaos meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is chaos?
- Chaos can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce chaos?
- Chaos is pronounced /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of chaos?
- The plural of chaos is chaoses.
Words near chaos in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chaos (page history and authors); Chaos (page history and authors); CHAOS (page history and authors); chaos (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); chaos (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: Chaos in RP.wav, En-us-chaos.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-chaos.wav.
Cite this entry: “chaos.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chaos. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.