calamitous means causing or involving calamity; disastrous. It carries an Arena rating of 1484, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, calamitous ranks #1,173 of 17,052 for Scariest Words, #1,248 of 17,052 for Most Sublime Words, #2,821 of 17,052 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,855 of 17,052 for Most Malleable Words.
calamitous is pronounced /kəˈlæmɪtəs/.
Why “calamitous” is a great word
Marked by or causing great and often widespread distress, misfortune, or ruin. From Latin calamitōsus ("destructive, disastrous"), from calamitās ("disaster, loss"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- ("to beat, to break"). First recorded in English 1535–45. Unlike "unfortunate," which suggests a personal setback, or "catastrophic," which implies a singular, shattering event, "calamitous" describes a prolonged state of ruin or distress. It is the harvest that fails for the third consecutive season, leaving nothing but dust and debt; the empire whose borders contract slowly over decades, each lost province a wound that does not close; the life whose disasters accumulate with the grinding persistence of water wearing stone—misfortune not as event but as condition, a word for ruin that settles and endures.
Etymology
Borrowed from French calamiteux (“calamitous”) (see French -eux, English -ous), from Latin calamitōsus (“destructive, disastrous, ruinous, calamitous”), a contraction of calamitātōsus, from calamitāt- + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of; prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns); calamitāt- is the oblique stem of calamitās (“disaster, misfortune, calamity; damage, harm; loss”), from *calamis (“damaged”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat; to break”)) + -tās (suffix forming abstract nouns denoting a condition or state). By surface analysis, calamity + -ous.
adj
- Causing or involving calamity; disastrous.e.g.“The city was struck by a calamitous cyclone.”
- Of a person: involved in a calamity; hence, distressed, miserable.
Words closest in meaning
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