apocalypses

noun

plural of apocalypse
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

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of apocalypses There are some apocalypses, the song seems to suggest, where no redemptive beauty can be found. — Marissa Lorusso, Pitchfork, 28 Oct. 2026 There’s a lot of apocalypses happening now in this world, major ones. — Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2026 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
  1. disasters
  2. catastrophes
  3. tragedies
  4. calamities
Noun
  • At the same time, as the extreme heat and wildfires this year showed us, climate disasters are taking lives and inflicting economic losses on a scale that governments can no longer afford to ignore.
    — Laurence Tubiana, Time, 6 Nov. 2026
  • Their power persisted despite proliferating school shootings, the devastating failures of the state’s electrical grid, the preventable deaths of pregnant women, and other scandals, disasters, and tragedies.
    — Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2026
Definition of disasters
Noun
  • Since Benson and her co-authors met in Oviedo, weather catastrophes have multiplied, oceans have acidified and the amount of carbon in the atmosphere has soared.
    — Katie Worth, ProPublica, 30 Oct. 2026
  • With that in mind, here’s a look at three new books shaped by catastrophes large and small.
    — Lisa Henricksson, Air Mail, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of catastrophes
Noun
  • The film, directed by Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, shows how Morrison overcame multiple tragedies to achieve the unthinkable – scaling the north side of Mount Everest and then skiing down it, a feat never before accomplished.
    — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 31 Oct. 2026
  • Ghosts can haunt their killers, or serve as a warning for the living to not forget the tragedies of the past.
    — Joseph States, Chicago Tribune, 29 Oct. 2026
Definition of tragedies
Noun
  • The protagonist becomes a wise-guy version of Benjamin’s Angel of History, watching calamities accumulate before his eyes.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • To avert future calamities, the forest outside Bordeaux must be thinned and its fire breaks widened, said Arthur Guérin-Turcq, a Sorbonne University geographer whose family cultivates pines near Le Porge.
    — Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026
Definition of calamities

Browse Nearby Words

apocalypse
apocalypses
apocalyptic
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Apocalypses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apocalypses. Accessed 13 Nov. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

31 Useful Rhetorical Devices

More Commonly Misspelled Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Nov. 13

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Great Big List of Beautiful and Useless Words, Vol. 5

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
speech-bubble-untangle
Simplify The Convoluted Expression Quiz A quiz that’s as “uncomplicated as a round de...
See All