chaoses

Noun

chaos (usually uncountable, plural chaoses)

1. (usually) The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
2. (usually) Any state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.
   • to descend into chaos
3. (usually) A behavior of iterative nonlinear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
4. (usually) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.
5. (obsolete, usually) A vast chasm or abyss.
6. (obsolete, rare, usually) 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...

See all 9 meanings of chaos