calamity
pronunciation
How to pronounce calamity in British English:
UK [kəˈlæməti]
How to pronounce calamity in American English:
US [kəˈlæməti]
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- Noun:
- an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
Word Origin
- calamity (n.)
- early 15c., from Middle French calamite (14c.), from Latin calamitatem (nominative calamitas) "damage, loss, failure; disaster, misfortune, adversity," origin obscure. Early etymologists associated it with calamus "straw" (see shawm); but it is perhaps from a lost root preserved in incolumis "uninjured," from PIE *kle-mo-, from base *kel- (1) "to strike, cut" (see holt).
Synonym
Example
- 1. This could be a new calamity in the making .
- 2. Eg. even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us .
- 3. This would be a calamity for european banks .
- 4. It is an environmental calamity in the making .
- 5. Most people considered the eruption a calamity .