as in disasters
a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction
this latest breakdown of the car is inconvenient, but not a calamity
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Recent Examples of calamities
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
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
There were intervening calamities that Walz, Ellison and Omar had nothing to do with, COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd.
—Joe Soucheray, Twin Cities, 7 Mar. 2026
The apocalypse Rosi presents is not just the legendary one that destroyed the ancient Roman town of the film’s title but an ongoing one that encompasses the calamities of our modern era as well as the rejuvenation that sometimes accompanies destruction.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2026
What Trump is most certainly reviewing is the viability of Noem as a Cabinet secretary, who has rapidly become a scapegoat for the predictable calamities of the high-visibility deployment of border guards as SWAT troops in urban centers.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 27 Jan. 2026
The calamities of war shuttered many of the earliest kissa, as entire collections of jazz records were lost.
—Nneka M. Okona, Bon Appetit Magazine, 21 Jan. 2026
But even if all those calamities come to pass, hey, Thomas still loves his partner.
—Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 15 Jan. 2026
Not so much for most of the thousands of people displaced a year ago by the twin fire calamities that hit the east and west ends of Los Angeles County.
—James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2026
Jed Perl, The New York Review of Books, 4 Apr. 2026
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
There were intervening calamities that Walz, Ellison and Omar had nothing to do with, COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd.
—Joe Soucheray, Twin Cities, 7 Mar. 2026
The apocalypse Rosi presents is not just the legendary one that destroyed the ancient Roman town of the film’s title but an ongoing one that encompasses the calamities of our modern era as well as the rejuvenation that sometimes accompanies destruction.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2026
What Trump is most certainly reviewing is the viability of Noem as a Cabinet secretary, who has rapidly become a scapegoat for the predictable calamities of the high-visibility deployment of border guards as SWAT troops in urban centers.
—Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 27 Jan. 2026
The calamities of war shuttered many of the earliest kissa, as entire collections of jazz records were lost.
—Nneka M. Okona, Bon Appetit Magazine, 21 Jan. 2026
But even if all those calamities come to pass, hey, Thomas still loves his partner.
—Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 15 Jan. 2026
Not so much for most of the thousands of people displaced a year ago by the twin fire calamities that hit the east and west ends of Los Angeles County.
—James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for calamities
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
-
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
-
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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The saddies of Enid’s notebook all a little uncanny, as in any good comic, yet terribly human in their tragedies.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
13 Apr. 2026
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As in all tragedies of chivalry, the alliance will split.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
10 Apr. 2026
Noun
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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
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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,
JSTOR Daily,
16 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Calamities.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/calamities. Accessed 15 Apr. 2026.
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