1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

disaster

noun

di-ˈza-stər How to pronounce disaster (audio)
Definition of disasternext
1
as in catastrophe
a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction hurricanes are natural disasters

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in failure
something that has failed an utter disaster, the play opened and closed on the same miserable night

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 disaster Perhaps that sense of urgency was a factor that led Paul Walker to found Reach Out WorldWide, a nonprofit disaster-response organization, in 2010. — Viju Mathew, Robb Report, 16 Sep. 2026 The authors recommended that the county update its County Recovery Plan, including a disaster debris plan, as well as formalize a disaster recovery center coordinator position and create a one-stop web platform for post-disaster services. — Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times, 15 Sep. 2026 Council also took action to extend the local disaster emergency declaration for another 30 days and to authorize that the city of Warsaw would receive reimbursement for sending their employees and equipment to help with the cleanup. — Jim Woods, Chicago Tribune, 15 Sep. 2026 In an interview with The Economist in 2023, just before his 100th birthday, Kissinger warned that the US and China had five to 10 years to avoid an AI disaster. — Andy Browne, semafor.com, 15 Sep. 2026 See All Example Sentences for disaster
Recent Examples of Synonyms for disaster
  1. catastrophe
  2. failure
  3. tragedy
  4. disappointment
  5. apocalypse
  6. bust
  7. calamity
Noun
  • More than 1,000 people have been confirmed dead and thousands remain missing after the catastrophe, according to authorities in both countries.
    — Simone McCarthy, CNN Money, 6 Sep. 2026
  • As the story moves breathlessly through the neighborhood’s streets and interiors, Kodeih, who also edited the feature, and cinematographer Tony Kopec zero in on a jumpy, kinetic tension between looming catastrophe and potential triumph.
    — Sheri Linden, HollywoodReporter, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of catastrophe
Noun
  • It is built the same way that the figure skater builds a routine or the running back learns to explode through a crack in the line—repetition after repetition, failure after failure, with no shortcut available and no machine that can stand in.
    — Dan Rockmore, New Yorker, 19 Sep. 2026
  • That makes preventing deployment and routing failures especially important as these fleets expand.
    — Kurt Knutsson, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of failure
Noun
  • Ditka has been losing contemporaries since July of 1964, when Willie Gallimore’s Volkswagen swerved and rolled, killing Gallimore and Bo Farrington in a training camp tragedy.
    — Dan Pompei, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026
  • For other families quietly and often despairingly living with similar problems of addiction and mental illness involving their children, the tragedy is an unnerving, looming specter — a worst-case scenario made real.
    — Gary Baum, HollywoodReporter, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of tragedy
Noun
  • Chubb was a slight disappointment in his Bills debut from a pass-rushing perspective.
    — Joe Buscaglia, New York Times, 16 Sep. 2026
  • And Harvey faces his overbearing father’s disappointment most glaringly with the public humiliation of an emotional breakdown while taking part in an amateur wrestling match the bodybuilder entered to prove his physical strength.
    — Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of disappointment
Noun
  • Those forecasts add hope for office workers after top AI leaders previously signaled a jobs apocalypse was imminent.
    — Jason Ma, Fortune, 5 Sep. 2026
  • Why private credit may avoid a ‘crisis-apocalypse’ Blackstone’s scale attracts outsized scrutiny, and investors’ attempts to pull money from its private credit funds earlier this year made headline news.
    — Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, semafor.com, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of apocalypse
Noun
  • And that was before Aaron Donald, a three-time defensive player of the year, ended a two-year retirement to join a team about to embark on a boom-or-bust season.
    — Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2026
  • But for anyone disturbed by the way To Catch a Predator executes its faux-law enforcement busts, the movie risks becoming viscerally unpleasant.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of bust
Noun
  • On the present trajectory, the US and China are hurtling toward the very calamity that Kissinger warned about.
    — Andy Browne, semafor.com, 15 Sep. 2026
  • Their images, as much as those from stationary TV cameras or professional photographers, became our window onto the calamity.
    — David Friend, Vanity Fair, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of calamity

Browse Nearby Words

disassociating
disaster
disasters
See all Nearby Words

Podcast

Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP

Cite this Entry

“Disaster.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disaster. Accessed 21 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

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

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of elegiac

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

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

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Words from the 'Odyssey'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 18
See More

Popular

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary
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
crayons-in-a-circle
Guess the Color Quiz Questions that use the whole box of crayons.
See All