Synonyms for disaster
Most common
All synonyms
Noun
1. Catastrophe
catastrophe, calamity, tragedy, accident, mishap, adversity, blow, casualty, misfortune, misadventure, misery, cataclysm, stroke, distress, fatality, trouble, woe, evil, affliction, reverse, mischance, visitation
Other
Definitions
- n. 1
An unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent change to the natural environment.
People would suffer disasters when society's morality degenerates.
Related words
- Word family
- disastrous
- Phrases
- disaster film disaster movie disaster tourism
- Is a kind of
- occurrence
Forms
- Plural
- disasters → catastrophes, calamities, tragedies, accidents…
Choose the right word
Since the unintended is often the undesirable, accident tends to signify some calamity or disaster, unless the contrary is expressed, as when we say a fortunate or happy accident.
J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)
Example sentences
- accident The accident was due to the driver's carelessness.
- tragedy There's a strong probability of a nuclear tragedy.
- catastrophe Is the world on the edge of a nuclear catastrophe?
- calamity The anticipation is always worse than the calamity.
- shipwreck The remains of the shipwreck still lie on the sand.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| disaster | rising | |
| accident | falling | |
| tragedy | steady | |
| catastrophe | steady | |
| calamity | steady |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 3 letters
- woe1
- 4 letters
- evil2, blow1
- 6 letters
- stroke1, misery3, mishap2
- 7 letters
- trouble2, reverse2, tragedy3
- 8 letters
- accident3, distress2, casualty4, calamity4, fatality4
- 9 letters
- adversity4, shipwreck2, cataclysm4, mischance
- 10 letters
- misfortune3, visitation4, affliction3
- 11 letters
- catastrophe4
- 12 letters
- misadventure4
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (evil2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- désastre
- Italiano
- disastro
- Español
- desastre
- Deutsch
- Katastrophe
- Català
- desastre