Armageddon

How to spell armageddon

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce armageddon

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does armageddon mean?

1. nounAny vast, decisive, and devastating conflict or disaster.

Armageddon in a sentence

• Analysts warned that a full trade war could trigger an economic armageddon.

• The documentary treats nuclear armageddon as the worst possible outcome of the crisis.

Where does armageddon come from?

Language of origin: Hebrew

This word traces back to the Hebrew phrase har Megiddo, meaning 'mountain (or hill) of Megiddo', Megiddo being a real fortified city overlooking a strategic plain in northern Israel where many ancient battles were fought. The phrase passed into Greek as Harmagedon in the New Testament book of Revelation, where it names the place of the great final battle between the forces of good and evil at the end of the world. English took the word directly from that biblical Greek in the late 1300s, keeping the doubled 'd' that reflects the Hebrew place name. Over time it broadened from the strictly religious sense into everyday use for any catastrophic, decisive conflict or disaster. The spelling trap lives in the middle: writers often add an extra 'm' or drop one of the two 'd's, when in fact it is a single 'm' followed by a double 'd'.

How the word is built

• har (Hebrew: mountain)
• Megiddo (an ancient city in northern Israel); Anglicised as a single word