calamities

noun

plural of calamity
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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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 calamities 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 Indeed, conflict and calamities are major factors in financial repression. — Jason Ma, Fortune, 23 Aug. 2026 Defending champion Norris is 91 points back, even after winning the last race in Hungary, while fellow McLaren driver Piastri is seventh after a series of calamities throughout the season. — Beau Dure, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2026 That’s been the story of this third season, one that started with Rhaenyra storming the castle and taking the Iron Throne and then promptly saw her get picked apart by dozens of unforeseen calamities. — Brian Grubb, Vulture, 10 Aug. 2026 Yoon drew extensively on these themes in his earlier works—most recently in the novel Run Me to Earth and the Story Prize–winning collection The Hive and the Honey—and his oeuvre depicts war’s psychological and material calamities. — Rachel Vorona Cote, The Atlantic, 30 July 2026 At the heart of the celebration is Kyoto’s Yasaka Shrine, a Shinto site whose principal deity has long been revered as a protector against calamities. — ABC News, 19 July 2026 El Niño, which brings a potpourri of weather calamities, is the world's most significant climate pattern, costing the global economy trillions of dollars per year, according to a recent study. — Doyle Rice, USA Today, 16 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for calamities
  1. disasters
  2. catastrophes
  3. tragedies
  4. apocalypses
Noun
  • Its chief instructor, Wang Kuanghan, has said plans are underway to open five more centers in China within three years, expanding the simulations to other disasters, including fires and earthquakes.
    — Lauryn Higgins, Time, 15 Oct. 2026
  • The administration initially talked about abolishing the agency, arguing that states and communities could deal with disasters on their own.
    — Dana R. Fisher, The Conversation, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of disasters
Noun
  • Fee’s attempt to serve as savior will only trigger further catastrophes.
    — Garth Greenwell, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2026
  • An institution built explicitly to neutralize biological catastrophes is now at the center of one.
    — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of catastrophes
Noun
  • At the concert, Mastodon also appeared as a band pushing past the tragedies, and was re-energized and refocused with a new lineup.
    — Steve Appleford, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2026
  • At the time, a bill to ban carriages was before the City Council, but these tragedies bolstered its political momentum.
    — Michael Schulman, New Yorker, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of tragedies
Noun
  • 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, JSTOR Daily, 16 Oct. 2025
Definition of apocalypses

Browse Nearby Words

calabooses
calamities
calamitous
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Cite this Entry

“Calamities.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/calamities. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

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