apocalyptic

[ uh-pok-uh-lip-tik ]

adjective

1. of or like an apocalypse; affording a revelation or prophecy.
2. pertaining to the Apocalypse or biblical book of Revelation.
3. predicting or presaging imminent disaster and total or universal destruction:

   the apocalyptic vision of some contemporary writers.

Other Words From

• a·poca·lypti·cal·ly adverb
• posta·poca·lyptic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of apocalyptic¹

1620–30; < Late Greek apokalýptikos, equivalent to apokalýpt ( ein ) to uncover, disclose ( apocalypse ) + -ikos -ic

Example Sentences

In one case a pharmacist in Wisconsin managed to sabotage 500 vaccines, apparently driven by his belief in apocalyptic conspiracy theories.

From MIT Technology Review

We read about people from the past who lived through apocalyptic times.

From Vox

America’s tectonic political plates are shifting ahead of an election that’s being cast in apocalyptic terms by both sides.

From Ozy

Elaborating on this “apocalyptic confrontation of South and North,” Cheney observes that “Monroe, Madison, and Jefferson believed that splitting Republicans was the point of the Missouri question.”

From Washington Post

Concerns over the combination of overstretched and underfunded health systems and the existing load of infectious and non-infectious diseases often led to it being talked about in apocalyptic terms.

From Quartz

And it merely delayed the apocalyptic maelstrom that followed rather than preventing it.

From The Daily Beast

At DoD he ran around with his hair practically on fire denouncing cuts to the defense budget in out-sized, apocalyptic terms.

From The Daily Beast

And I also have lots of apocalyptic dreams, including warfare.

From The Daily Beast

Off the coast of Japan stands a crumbling, post-apocalyptic abandoned island that once held a bustling mining community.

From The Daily Beast

Failure to reach an accord will add yet more potentially apocalyptic uncertainties to the Middle Eastern scene.

From The Daily Beast

It was poetry and the drama, and processions and apocalyptic visions.

From Project Gutenberg

She flashed before him, an Apocalyptic angel, splended and terrible, trumpet-calling him to the last great fight.

From Project Gutenberg

Similarly, the apocalyptic myth of world-destruction has passed beyond the stage of the myth proper.

From Project Gutenberg

In Jewish literature, one of the earliest examples of such apocalyptic accounts of the beyond is to be found in the Book of Enoch.

From Project Gutenberg

The apocalyptic hope is the end of Old Testament prophecy, but not its height.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ominous
• prophetic