chaos
pronunciation
How to pronounce chaos in British English:
UK [ˈkeɪɒs]
How to pronounce chaos in American English:
US [ˈkeɪɑːs]
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- Noun:
- a state of extreme confusion and disorder
- the formless and disordered state of matter before the creation of the cosmos
- (physics) a dynamical system that is extremely sensitive to its initial conditions
Word Origin
- chaos
- chaos: see gas
- chaos (n.)
- late 14c., "gaping void," from Old French chaos (14c.) or directly from Latin chaos, from Greek khaos "abyss, that which gapes wide open, is vast and empty," from *khnwos, from PIE root *gheu- "to gape, yawn" (cognates: Greek khaino "I yawn," Old English ginian, Old Norse ginnunga-gap; see yawn (v.)). Meaning "utter confusion" (c. 1600) is extended from theological use of chaos for "the void at the beginning of creation" in Vulgate version of Genesis (1530s in English). The Greek for "disorder" was tarakhe, however the use of chaos here was rooted in Hesiod ("Theogony"), who describes khaos as the primeval emptiness of the Universe, begetter of Erebus and Nyx ("Night"), and in Ovid ("Metamorphoses"), who opposes Khaos to Kosmos, "the ordered Universe." Meaning "orderless confusion" in human affairs is from c. 1600. Chaos theory in the modern mathematical sense is attested from c. 1977.
Example
- 1. Sectarian warfare and chaos bring their own problems .
- 2. This is the era of crossroads , confusion and chaos .
- 3. After the chaos of shanghai , it was a welcome vision of rural serenity .
- 4. This market chaos is understandable ; the trade-offs are complex .
- 5. What causes this kind of chaos ?