catastrophe Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
    tragedy; calamity; cataclysm; disaster.
    • the whole city was affected by the irremediable calamity
    • the earthquake was a disaster
  2. noun a state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune
    disaster.
    • lack of funds has resulted in a catastrophe for our school system
    • his policies were a disaster
  3. noun a sudden violent change in the earth's surface
    cataclysm.

WordNet

Ca*tas"tro*phe noun
Etymology
L. catastropha, Gr. , fr. to turn up and down, to overturn; down + to turn.
Definitions
  1. An event producing a subversion of the order or system of things; a final event, usually of a calamitous or disastrous nature; hence, sudden calamity; great misfortune.
    The strange catastrophe of affairs now at London. Bp. Buret.
    The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw. Woodward.
  2. The final event in a romance or a dramatic piece; a denouement, as a death in a tragedy, or a marriage in a comedy.
  3. (Geol.) A violent and widely extended change in the surface of the earth, as, an elevation or subsidence of some part of it, effected by internal causes. Whewell.

Webster 1913