Adjacent Words

Calamitous definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CALAMITOUS, a.
1. Very miserable; involved in deep distress; oppressed with infelicity; wretched from misfortune; applied to men.
2. Producing distress and misery; making wretched; applied to external circumstances; as a calamitous event.
3. Full of misery; distressful; wretched; applied to state or condition.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: (of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin; "the stock market crashed on Black Friday"; "a calamitous defeat"; "the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign"; "such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory"- Charles Darwin; "it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it"- Douglas MacArthur; "a fateful error" [syn: black, calamitous, disastrous, fatal, fateful]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 1545 being, causing, or accompanied by calamity <calamitous events> • calamitously adverb

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Calamitous Ca*lam"i*tous, a. [L. Calamitosus; cf. F. calamiteux.] 1. Suffering calamity; wretched; miserable. [Obs.] Ten thousands of calamitous persons. --South. 2. Producing, or attended with distress and misery; making wretched; wretched; unhappy. ``This sad and calamitous condition.'' --South. ``A calamitous prison'' --Milton. Syn: Miserable; deplorable; distressful; afflictive; wretched; grievous; baleful; disastrous; adverse; unhappy; severe; sad; unfortunate. -- Ca*lam"i*tous*ly, adv. -- Ca*lam"i*tous*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you describe an event or situation as calamitous, you mean it is very unfortunate or serious. (FORMAL) ...the calamitous state of the country. = disastrous ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Disastrous, unlucky, unfortunate, adverse, untoward, unhappy, unprosperous, hapless, ill-fated, ill-starred, deplorable, ruinous, miserable, wretched, dreadful, distressful, distressing, baleful, severe, afflictive, sad, grievous.

Moby Thesaurus

afflictive, awful, baneful, black, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, consuming, consumptive, deadly, demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desolating, destroying, destructive, devastating, dire, disastrous, distressful, distressing, doomful, dreadful, fatal, fateful, fratricidal, grievous, heartbreaking, internecine, lamentable, nihilist, nihilistic, pernicious, ravaging, regrettable, ruining, ruinous, self-destructive, subversionary, subversive, suicidal, terrible, tragic, unfortunate, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic, wasteful, wasting, withering, woeful, wreckful