perfect storm

Definition of perfect storm

: a critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors

Examples of perfect storm in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web This year, the brand-new technology, lack of training and overconfidence by the state party amounted to a perfect storm. — Jessica Huseman, ProPublica, "Iowa’s Lesson: Political Parties Are Not as Good as Government Officials at Counting Votes," 4 Feb. 2020 For many long-time observers of China, the NBA saga is a perfect storm that’s finally bringing to the forefront of American discourse the problem of China’s attempts to bully countries and companies that do not bend to its dictates. — Isabella Steger, Quartz, "The NBA may have just thrown Hong Kong’s protesters a new lifeline," 10 Oct. 2019 There was a combination of emotion, Bachelor producing, and fizzy champagne at work tonight that was really the perfect storm. — Lia Beck, refinery29.com, "The Bachelor Season 24, Episode 2 Recap: Please Ignore The Hannah Behind The Curtain," 13 Jan. 2020 Ed Orgeron and his perfect storm of an offensive prodigies completed a reclamation project for the ages. — Michael Casagrande | Mcasagrande@al.com, al, "A late-night walk down Bourbon Street as NOLA rejoices LSU title," 14 Jan. 2020 However, Monday night represented a perfect storm in which the Bucks' flaws were fully exposed. — Matt Velazquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Spurs 126, Bucks 104: A five-game winning streak ends in a barrage of three-pointers," 6 Jan. 2020 And as if the perfect storm couldn’t get more perfect, a number of other US companies have also at the same time been drawn into the China-Hong Kong maelstrom. — Isabella Steger, Quartz, "The NBA may have just thrown Hong Kong’s protesters a new lifeline," 10 Oct. 2019 Count Crowley is the perfect storm of his interests and life experiences, as the actor grew up a comic book geek in the midwest, and is 17 years sober after struggling with addiction issues. — Aaron Couch, The Hollywood Reporter, "David Dastmalchian on Dreaming Up Comic 'Count Crowley' on Movie Sets," 23 Oct. 2019 In other words, the patterns of intimate partner violence are potentially a perfect storm for CTE. — Nechama Moring, Quartz, "Why scientists ignore the top cause of traumatic brain injuries," 22 Oct. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'perfect storm.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about perfect storm

Dictionary Entries near perfect storm

perfect usufruct

Statistics for perfect storm

Last Updated

14 Feb 2020

Cite this Entry

“Perfect storm.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfect%20storm. Accessed 22 Feb. 2020.

WORD OF THE DAY

pontificate

See Definitions and Examples »

Test Your Vocabulary

More Confusing Words—Quiz

The magician ______ moved the selected card to the top of the deck.

discretely discreetly

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.