Meaning & use
disaster
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A sudden, serious event such as a flood, fire or crash that causes widespread harm, loss or suffering.
Grammar: Often used with a type word: a natural disaster, an air disaster.
Patterns
- a disaster for someone
- disaster strikes
- a disaster area
Thousands lost their homes in the flood disaster.
Emergency crews rushed to the scene of the rail disaster.
The region is still recovering from the earthquake disaster.
nouncountableinformal
Something that goes very badly or fails completely, even if nobody is hurt.
Grammar: Informal and exaggerated: the party was a disaster.
Patterns
- be a disaster
- a complete disaster
My first attempt at baking bread was a disaster.
The school play turned into a disaster when the lights failed.
The interview was a total disaster.
noununcountable
Complete ruin or very bad luck, as a general condition rather than one event.
Grammar: Used without an or an: the plan was heading for disaster.
Patterns
- lead to disaster
- court disaster
Ignoring the warnings could spell disaster for the company.
The team was on the brink of disaster.
Skipping the safety checks invites disaster.
Word forms
| plural | disasters |
|---|
Common combinations
- a natural disaster
- The town rebuilt after the natural disaster.
- a recipe for disaster
- Leaving the kids alone with the paint is a recipe for disaster.
- avert disaster
- A quick decision averted disaster.
- disaster relief
- Volunteers collected supplies for disaster relief.
- a total disaster
- The trip was a total disaster.
Synonyms and how they differ
- catastrophe
- A catastrophe is even more extreme than a disaster and suggests huge, often irreversible damage.
- calamity
- Calamity sounds more formal and stresses the misery caused to those affected.
- fiasco
- A fiasco is a humiliating failure of an event or plan, with no real harm or suffering.
- tragedy
- Tragedy centers on the loss of life or deep sorrow, not just the damage.
Opposites
Word family
- disastrous adjective
- causing or resulting in great harm
- disastrously adverb
- in a very bad or damaging way
- disaster-prone adjective
- likely to suffer accidents or failures
Commonly confused: disaster or disastrous?
disaster vs disastrous
Disastrous is the adjective. Say a disastrous result, not a disaster result.
Practice
Rushing the safety inspection is a recipe for ___.
Choose one answer.
The fixed phrase is recipe for disaster, using the singular noun. Disastrous and disastrously are adjective and adverb forms that do not follow for here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “disaster”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.