Meaning & use
calamity
Last updated
UK/kəˈlæməti/
US/kəˈlæməti/
Meaning
nouncountable or uncountableformalliterary
A sudden disaster that causes serious loss, damage or suffering.
Grammar: Countable for a specific event (a calamity struck); uncountable in a general sense.
Patterns
- a calamity for someone
- calamity strikes
The flood was a calamity for the small village.
A series of calamities ruined the family.
The loss of the harvest was a calamity.
Word forms
| plural | calamities |
|---|
Common combinations
- natural calamity
- A natural calamity left thousands homeless.
- calamity strikes
- Calamity struck when the dam broke.
- avert a calamity
- Quick action averted a calamity.
- economic calamity
- The crash was an economic calamity.
- calamity for
- The closure is a calamity for local workers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- catastrophe
- Catastrophe is more common and can describe any huge disaster, while calamity feels slightly more literary.
- disaster
- Disaster is the everyday word and can describe small failures too.
- tragedy
- Tragedy emphasizes sorrow and loss of life, rather than the scale of damage.
- misfortune
- Misfortune is milder and can be a small piece of bad luck.
Opposites
Word family
- calamitous adjective
- causing great damage
- calamitously adverb
- in a disastrous way
Commonly confused: calamity or casualty?
calamity vs casualty
A calamity is the disaster; a casualty is a person hurt or killed in it.
Practice
The earthquake was a ____ for the whole region, destroying homes and roads.
Choose one answer.
Calamity means a disaster that causes great damage. The other nouns have unrelated meanings.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “calamity”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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