Trending: ‘Armageddon’

Armageddon spiked in lookups on October 7th, 2022, after the word was used in remarks by president Biden.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine has brought the world closer to "Armageddon" than at any time since the Cold-War Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. President Joe Biden said.
— Reuters, 7 Oct. 2022

We have several definitions for Armageddon, the most relevant of which is either “a usually vast decisive conflict or confrontation” or “the site or time of a final and conclusive battle between the forces of good and evil” (although it can also refer to the battle itself that takes place at Armageddon).

The word has been in use for a considerable length of time (since before the 12th century), and comes from the Greek Armageddōn, scene of the battle foretold in the Bible's Revelation 16:14–16.

Armageddon is occasionally found used in an extended or highly figurative manner.

It was these scenes of culinary Armageddon that inspired the late, great food critic Clement Freud to opine witheringly: 'To barbecue is a way of life rather than a desirable method of cooking.’
— Tom Sykes, Daily mail (London, Eng.), 12 Apr. 2010