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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Trump has expressed a desire to push more responsibility for disasters down to states.—
Gabriela Aoun Angueira,
Fortune,
11 Apr. 2026
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His boldest innovation is to invoke not past glories but past disasters, summoning the ghosts of the United States’ catastrophic interventions in Iraq.—
Fintan O’Toole,
The New York Review of Books,
9 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Shaboozey doesn’t identify as a poli-sci expert but could still acknowledge human-rights catastrophes.—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
8 Apr. 2026
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In 1941, Japan’s Pearl Harbor surprise attack triggered a nearly 2-year chain of American military catastrophes.—
Gil Troy,
New York Daily News,
29 Mar. 2026
Noun
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Cutesy anecdotes alternated with triumphs and tragedies—a school district rescued from a ransomware gang, an iPad salvaged from a plane crash.—
Julian Lucas,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
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The city of Hayward in February experienced one of the deadliest 10-day stretches for pedestrians in the city’s history, leading the public to call on leaders to quickly approve a plan to help prevent future tragedies.—
Chase Hunter,
Mercury News,
17 Apr. 2026
Noun
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For certain great artists, Meis believes, the creative act is a safe harbor where life’s pressures, exigencies, and calamities aren’t so much denied or resolved as reimagined as pictorial dramas.—
Jed Perl,
The New York Review of Books,
4 Apr. 2026
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Colorado went 43-119, a record that belongs in a museum exhibit beside other modern-era calamities, behind glass.—
Jenny Catlin,
New York Times,
25 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Apocalypses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/apocalypses. Accessed 23 Apr. 2026.
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