Catastrophe

How to spell catastrophe

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce catastrophe

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does catastrophe mean?

1. nounA sudden and widespread disaster causing great damage or suffering.

Catastrophe in a sentence

• The flood was an economic catastrophe for the entire region.

• Losing the backup files would be a catastrophe for the project.

Where does catastrophe come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word comes from the Greek katastrophe, which literally meant 'an overturning' or 'a sudden turn', built from kata, meaning 'down' or 'against', and strephein, the verb 'to turn'. In ancient Greek drama it was a technical term for the final turning point of a play, the moment when the plot resolves and the action sweeps to its conclusion. Latin borrowed it as catastropha, and English took it up in the sixteenth century, at first keeping that theatrical sense of a story's decisive ending. Over time the meaning darkened, so that by the 1700s a catastrophe was any sudden, sweeping disaster rather than merely a dramatic resolution. The Greek strephein also gives us 'strophe' in poetry and the 'apostrophe' mark, and noticing that shared 'stroph' element helps explain why the ending is spelled -ophe rather than the more obvious -ophy.

How the word is built

• cata- (down, against)
• strophe (a turning, from Greek strephein 'to turn')
• final -e