From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcatastropheca‧tas‧tro‧phe /kəˈtæstrəfi/ ●○○ noun 1 DISASTER[countable, uncountable] a terrible event in which there is a lot of destruction, suffering, or death SYN disasterenvironmental/nuclear/economic etc catastrophe The Black Sea is facing ecological catastrophe as a result of pollution.prevent/avert a catastrophe Sudan requires food immediately to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.2 HARM/BE BAD FOR[countable] an event which is very bad for the people involved SYN disastercatastrophe for If the contract is cancelled, it’ll be a catastrophe for everyone concerned.
Examples from the Corpus
catastrophe• The blizzard was a catastrophe that affected 17 states, ranging from New Hampshire to Tennessee.• The oil spill will be an ecological catastrophe.• Scientists say the oil spill is an ecological catastrophe.• Most people now accept that global warming could result in an environmental catastrophe.• Seven different teachers in the course of ten days became the final catastrophe of this classroom.• The drive for cheap food has been behind every food catastrophe of the past decade.• These will go a long way to lessen the real danger of accidental war or nuclear catastrophe due to misinformation.• The prose of this chapter measures the adequacy of verbal accounts of catastrophe in the age of photographic reproduction.• Of my five fires, it is the only catastrophe instigated by nature.• At the simplest level, patriotism lent meaning and purpose to personal catastrophes that would otherwise appear intolerable.• When November came, and the debt ceiling had not moved, Rubin postponed catastrophe by borrowing from two government pension funds.• The governments of the world failed to act to prevent the catastrophe of World War II.• Surely this catastrophe couldn't really be happening?• The economy seems to be moving toward catastrophe.environmental/nuclear/economic etc catastrophe• For 24 hours the country appeared headed for political and economic catastrophe, with two Chambers about to be sworn in.• It was not, somehow, the air of a man contemplating nuclear catastrophe, but a more pleasant dream.• Each side claims that its estimate of the chances of nuclear catastrophe is more accurate.• These will go a long way to lessen the real danger of accidental war or nuclear catastrophe due to misinformation.• They act as a complement to his large works which are responses to a progressive environmental catastrophe.• I say nuclear catastrophe partly because any exchange of nuclear arsenals will bear no resemblance to anything that could be called war.• The republics were poor, in a state of virtual economic catastrophe.Origin catastrophe (1500-1600) Greek katastrephein “to turn upside down”, from kata- ( → CATACLYSM) + strephein “to turn” 