ca·lam·i·tous

(kə-lăm′ĭ-təs)

adj.

Causing or involving calamity; disastrous.

ca·lam′i·tous·ly adv.

ca·lam′i·tous·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

calamitous

(kəˈlæmɪtəs)

adj

causing, involving, or resulting in a calamity; disastrous

caˈlamitously adv

caˈlamitousness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ca•lam•i•tous

(kəˈlæm ɪ təs)

adj.

causing or involving calamity; disastrous.

[1535–45]

ca•lam′i•tous•ly, adv.

ca•lam′i•tous•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

calamitous - (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin; "the stock market crashed on Black Friday"; "a calamitous defeat"; "the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign"; "such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory"- Charles Darwin; "it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it"- Douglas MacArthur; "a fateful error"

disastrous, fatal, fateful, black

unfortunate - not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune; "an unfortunate turn of events"; "an unfortunate decision"; "unfortunate investments"; "an unfortunate night for all concerned"

calamitous

adjective disastrous, terrible, devastating, tragic, fatal, deadly, dreadful, dire, catastrophic, woeful, ruinous, cataclysmic a calamitous air crash
good, helpful, fortunate, beneficial, favourable, advantageous, win-win

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

calamitous

adjective

Causing ruin or destruction:

cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, destructive, disastrous, fatal, fateful, ruinous.

Translations

كَثيرُ البَلايا، مليئ بالنَّكَبات

katastrofálnínešťastný

katastrofal

hörmungar-

fecifelâket doğuran

calamitous

[kəˈlæmɪtəs] ADJ → calamitoso, desastroso

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

calamitous

[kəˈlæmɪtəs] adj [event, consequences, situation] → catastrophique, désastreux/euse

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

calamitous

adj → katastrophal

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

calamitous

[kəˈlæmɪtəs] adj → disastroso/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

calamity

(kəˈlӕməti) – plural caˈlamities – noun

a great misfortune. It will be a calamity if he fails his exam.

caˈlamitous adjective

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The moan of that wounded beast (the French army) which betrayed its calamitous condition was the sending of Lauriston to Kutuzov's camp with overtures for peace.

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Nicholson's; he was well acquainted with the tale of John's calamitous disappearance from Edinburgh; and putting one thing with another, hasted with the first word of this scandal, not to the police, but to his friend.

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The doom of the Regent and Council shows singularly the total interruption of justice at this calamitous period, even in the most clamant cases of oppression.

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The internal effects of a mutable policy are still more calamitous. It poisons the blessing of liberty itself.

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"A prizefighter, a hoodlum, a plug-ugly," Sarah sneered, after she had exhausted herself of all calamitous forecasts of her own future and the future of her children in the absence of Saxon's weekly four dollars and a half.

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Martyrdom made a saint of the trivial and foolish Marie Antoinette, and her biographers still keep her fragrant with the odor of sanctity to this day, while unconsciously proving upon almost every page they write that the only calamitous instinct which her husband lacked, she supplied--the instinct to root out and get rid of an honest, able, and loyal official, wherever she found him.

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And this is indeed the more necessary, as with the hope of enlisting public sympathy in behalf of the inhabitants, I design here to give a history of the calamitous events which have so lately occurred within its limits.

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They crowded upon him more thickly, however, now there were no passing objects to attract his attention; and the one idea was always uppermost, that some stroke of ill- fortune must have occurred so calamitous in its nature that all were fearful of disclosing it to him.

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Bulstrode is anxious for her niece, and I myself should grieve at a calamitous change in your position.

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And we to-day, looking back across the centuries, can safely say that even had he lived, the Second Revolt would not have been less calamitous in its outcome than it was.

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in evil strait this day I stand Before my Judge, either to undergoe My self the total Crime, or to accuse My other self, the partner of my life; Whose failing, while her Faith to me remaines, I should conceal, and not expose to blame By my complaint; but strict necessitie Subdues me, and calamitous constraint, Least on my head both sin and punishment, However insupportable, be all Devolv'd; though should I hold my peace, yet thou Wouldst easily detect what I conceale.

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Some flickering efforts to spare you the premature knowledge of his calamitous position, you may observe in him this day; but hope has sunk beneath the horizon, and the undersigned is Crushed.

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