Word of the Day

: October 29, 2023

pandemonium

noun pan-duh-MOH-nee-um

What It Means

Pandemonium refers to a situation in which a crowd or mass of people act in a wild, uncontrolled, or violent way because they are afraid, excited, or confused.

// Pandemonium ensued when a power failure knocked out the city’s traffic lights during rush hour.

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pandemonium in Context

“It was pandemonium when [Taylor] Swift broke out one of her first country singles that became an international hit. The crowd really lost it for the famous tale of a high school love triangle, especially with the signature lyric: ‘She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts / She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers.’” — Emily Yahr, The Washington Post, 18 Mar. 2023

Did You Know?

When John Milton needed a name for the gathering place of all demons for Paradise Lost, he turned to the classics as any sensible 17th-century writer would. Pandæmonium, as the capital of Hell is known in the epic poem, combines the Greek prefix pan-, meaning “all,” with the Late Latin daemonium, meaning “evil spirit.” (Daemonium itself traces back to the far more innocuous Greek word daímōn, meaning “spirit” or “divine power.”) Over time, Pandæmonium (or Pandemonium) came to designate all of hell and was used as well for earthbound dens of wickedness and sin. By the late-18th century, the word implied a place or state of confusion or uproar, and from there, it didn’t take long for pandemonium to become associated with states of utter disorder and wildness.