Word.ws English Dictionary

playing havoc

playing havoc is the present participle and gerund of play havoc.

Meaning of play havoc

Verb

play havoc (third-person singular simple present plays havoc, present participle playing havoc, simple past and past participle played havoc)

  1. Synonym of wreak havoc.
    • If so, the individual wealth effects [which, except for the condition that p#92;cdotD#95;#123;w#95;i#125;x(p,#92;alpha#95;iw)#61;1, are essentially unrestricted] can play havoc with the well-behaved but possibly small individual substitution effects.1995, Andreu Mas-Colell, Michael D. Whinston, and Jerry R. Green, Microeconomic Theory, Oxford University Press, page 111
    Synonyms:
    wreak havoc

Questions about playing havoc

What is playing havoc the present participle and gerund of?
Playing havoc is the present participle and gerund of play havoc.

Words near playing havoc in the dictionary

  1. playing full
  2. playing games
  3. playing God
  4. playing gooseberry
  5. playing hardball
  6. playing havoc
  7. playing hell with
  8. playing hob with
  9. playing hooky
  10. playing host to
  11. playing house

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing havoc (page history and authors); play havoc (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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