noun
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a disaster or misfortune, esp one causing extreme havoc, distress, or misery
-
a state or feeling of deep distress or misery
Synonym Usage
See disaster.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of calamity
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English calamite, from Middle French, from Latin calamitāt-, stem of calamitās (also kadamitas ) “crop failure, disaster,” of disputed origin; often considered to be derived from calam(us) “cane, reed” + -itās -ity ( def. ), but perhaps instead akin to columus “safe,” incolumitās “safety”
Explanation
Use the word calamity to describe an event that causes great harm and misery, or a general state of distress or misery: the calamity of war. Near synonyms are catastrophe and disaster. The noun calamity is from Middle English calamytey, from Latin calamitas, a word which might be related to Latin clades "destruction." Calamity Jane was the nickname of a 19th-century woman living on the U.S. frontier. She claimed to have some very exciting adventures.
Vocabulary lists containing calamity
List 8
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The Crossover
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100 SAT words Beginning with "C"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They plan for calamity and how they’d bounce back.
From MarketWatch • Jul. 12, 2026
White House reporters, meanwhile, are preparing for the day — perhaps a day when they serve as pool reporter — when they get the call about a calamity befalling the president.
From Salon • Jun. 26, 2026
Modern historians must try to reconstruct the nature, extent and consequences of this horrific calamity from anguished and often contradictory reports.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 12, 2026
A more immediate calamity could be fertilizer shortages as India, where two-thirds of the population is still rural, heads into its June-July planting season timed to the summer monsoon, Pramanik says.
From Barron's • May 21, 2026
As we slowly gained some civil rights, it seemed that both hope and calamity walked hand in hand.
From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
