1
as in floods
a great flow of water or of something that overwhelms
an ancient cataclysm that may have been the basis for the Flood described in the Bible
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in disasters
a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction
the earthquake that struck Lisbon in 1755, killing 30,000 people, was one of the greatest cataclysms ever recorded
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in upheavals
a violent disturbance (as of the political or social order)
a social cataclysm that gave rise to a new world order
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cataclysms
These cataclysms locked inside the Delaware Basin more than 46 billion barrels of technically recoverable crude oil, and 281 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
—
Literary Hub,
30 Apr. 2026
And star-formation will continue for trillions of years, providing new lights in the sky and new chances for cataclysms like supernovae, kilonovae, and tidal disruption events.
—
Big Think,
31 Mar. 2026
In the early 2000s, scientists first saw these conspicuous cataclysms, which can shine much longer and be more than 10 times brighter than a normal supernova.
—
Joseph Howlett,
Scientific American,
11 Mar. 2026
At the universe's grandest scales, galaxy clusters collide in slow-motion cataclysms, leaving behind immense, ghostly arcs — vast ribbons of diffuse radio emissions that can stretch across millions of light-years.
—
Sharmila Kuthunur,
Space.com,
21 Nov. 2025
Literary Hub,
30 Apr. 2026
And star-formation will continue for trillions of years, providing new lights in the sky and new chances for cataclysms like supernovae, kilonovae, and tidal disruption events.
—
Big Think,
31 Mar. 2026
In the early 2000s, scientists first saw these conspicuous cataclysms, which can shine much longer and be more than 10 times brighter than a normal supernova.
—
Joseph Howlett,
Scientific American,
11 Mar. 2026
At the universe's grandest scales, galaxy clusters collide in slow-motion cataclysms, leaving behind immense, ghostly arcs — vast ribbons of diffuse radio emissions that can stretch across millions of light-years.
—
Sharmila Kuthunur,
Space.com,
21 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cataclysms
Noun
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Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday, nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 25 girls, two teenage counselors, and the director at the all-girls Christian camp in Texas.
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In total, last July’s monstrous floods killed at least 136 people along the Guadalupe River in Texas Hill Country.
Noun
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Previous cloud-seeding controversies Cloud seeding is now at the center of the rise in weather‑control conspiracy narratives after disasters, such as the tragic Texas floods of 2025 that killed dozens of people, many of them children.
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Peace emphasized that such disasters have a lasting impact.
Noun
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Earth-impacting shrapnel from those primordial upheavals may have helped seed our planet with the precursors for life, delivering water and organic compounds from the dark, icy depths of the outer solar system.
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Miniature upheavals by the courthouse steps.
Noun
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Heavy rainfall in the area caused torrents and increased the risk of landslides, making rescue operations more difficult, state media said.
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Spring rains and winter snowmelt have swelled rivers and lakes, forcing torrents of water through Cheboygan County communities on its way to Lake Huron.
Noun
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Hardening operations to withstand those catastrophes is imperative for lowering risk.
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For example, that the economy is cratering, as was the case in Detroit, or that demand to live somewhere is falling for other reasons, like a rise in crime or natural catastrophes.
Noun
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Satellite photos showed the destruction in Venezuela left by two powerful earthquakes that struck Wednesday and left more than 900 people dead.
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Countries around the Caribbean Sea are vulnerable to major earthquakes because of the tectonic plates in the region.
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.
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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.
Noun
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To grade the 50 states and the District of Columbia on their relative natural disaster risks, five measures were developed that account for the frequency and damage of calamities, weighted against population and geographic size.
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In early times, most humans barely paid attention to weather calamities because the region was so sparsely populated.
Cite this Entry
“Cataclysms.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cataclysms. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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