as in disasters
a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction
the fear that the next global pandemic could be an apocalypse of biblical proportions
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Recent Examples of apocalypses
Based on Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, the surrealist musical follows one nuclear family across thousands of years and three apocalypses.
—
Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
And a lot of the pseudepigrapha, like the fake gospels and fake apocalypses, fill in gaps in the record that can serve latter-day, post-biblical purposes.
—JSTOR Daily, 16 Oct. 2025
The audience for 2025’s reel of zombie apocalypses lives in a world shaped, in part, by Americans’ refusal to accept an aging Joe Biden’s ineligibility for President.
—Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
And a lot of the pseudepigrapha, like the fake gospels and fake apocalypses, fill in gaps in the record that can serve latter-day, post-biblical purposes.
—JSTOR Daily, 16 Oct. 2025
The audience for 2025’s reel of zombie apocalypses lives in a world shaped, in part, by Americans’ refusal to accept an aging Joe Biden’s ineligibility for President.
—Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for apocalypses
Noun
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Many more chemical incidents in the commonwealth have not been examined by the agency, which generally allocates its small staff to the country's most high-profile disasters.—
Ruby Grisin,
The Courier-Journal,
19 Aug. 2025
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Some of our existing housing stock will be demolished or destroyed by fire or other disasters.—
Bill Conerly,
Forbes.com,
19 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Then there were climate catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina, the normalization of active shooter drills at their schools and a worldwide pandemic.—
Lisa Respers France,
CNN Money,
7 June 2026
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Global natural catastrophes now generate hundreds of billions of dollars in economic losses annually, with a significant portion uninsured.—
Jim Williamson,
Fortune,
26 May 2026
Noun
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That could’ve been it for the Allman Brothers, but Gregg recovered and the bruised band soldiered on through a series of further tragedies, including the death of bassist Berry Oakley, also in a motorcycle crash, in 1972.—
Steve Bloom,
Rolling Stone,
16 June 2026
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Not perfectly so—nothing in life is a completely sure bet, and human error can and has led to a handful of genuine tragedies.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
11 June 2026
Noun
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In early times, most humans barely paid attention to weather calamities because the region was so sparsely populated.—
Martin E. Comas,
The Orlando Sentinel,
14 June 2026
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Even when calamities are more intimate, such as being unemployed for a long period of time, there is a higher risk of smoking, likely due to the anxiety.—
Julia Craven,
Allure,
9 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Apocalypses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apocalypses. Accessed 18 Jun. 2026.
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