disastrous

adjective

di·​sas·​trous di-ˈza-strəs How to pronounce disastrous (audio)
 also  -ˈsa-
1
: attended by or causing suffering or disaster : calamitous
a disastrous flood
2
: terrible, horrendous
a disastrous score
disastrously adverb

Examples of disastrous in a Sentence

Half the city was destroyed by a disastrous fire. The bad weather could have a disastrous effect on the area's tourism industry. His failure to back up the computer files had disastrous consequences. The strike was economically disastrous.
Recent Examples on the Web
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The storm has strengthened into the equivalent of a Category 4 Hurricane and is expected to hit central Vietnam Thursday night — an area that hasn’t yet recovered from disastrous flash flooding and landslides caused by weeks of record rainfall and successive storms. Helen Regan, CNN Money, 6 Nov. 2025 Both would have been disastrous hires. Jessica Neal, CNBC, 5 Nov. 2025 But Cheney’s decision was arguably one of the most disastrous in American history. Ellen Mitchell, The Hill, 5 Nov. 2025 During Mao Zedong’s disastrous Great Leap Forward, from 1958 to 1961, the Chinese government released no accurate mortality data. The New Yorker, New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2025 See All Example Sentences for disastrous

Word History

First Known Use

1594, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of disastrous was in 1594

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Cite this Entry

“Disastrous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disastrous. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.

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