catastrophenoun [ C ]
uk/kəˈtæs.trə.fi/us/kəˈtæs.trə.fi/C2 a sudden event that causes very great trouble or destruction:
They were warned of the ecological catastrophe to come.
a bad situation:
The emigration of scientists is a catastrophe for the country.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Accidents and disasters
- a knockout blow idiom
- accident
- accidental
- accidentally
- accidentally on purpose idiom
- banana skin
- calamity
- cataclysm
- debacle
- devil
- disastrous
- emergency
- forest fire
- holocaust
- knockout
- meltdown
- misadventure
- snafu
- the devil to pay idiom
- tragedy
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catastrophic
adjective uk/ˌkæt.əˈstrɒf.ɪk/us/ˌkæt̬.əˈstrɑː.fɪk/
An unchecked increase in the use of fossil fuels could have catastrophic results for the planet.