apocalypse
/əˈpɑkəlɪps/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.71 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A revealing, especially a prophecy of, or the unfolding of, supernatural events.
noun
A huge disaster; a cataclysmic event; destruction or ruin of large scope and scale.
noun
The unveiling of events prophesied in the Revelation; the second coming and the end of life on Earth; global destruction.
noun
The Book of Revelation.
name
The written account of a revelation of hidden things given by God to a chosen prophet.
Countable
Example Sentences
- "The early development of Perl 6 was punctuated by a series of apocalypses by Larry Wall."
- "Near-synonyms: cataclysm, catastrophe, holocaust; armageddon, doomsday, end times, eschaton, judgement day, judgment day"
- "A nuclear apocalypse would have been possible if tensions went out of control during the Cuban Missile Crisis."
- "Man has forgotten the soul and thus doomed his civilization to apocalypse."
- "The Spanish mission in America soon became not so much crusade as apocalypse."
- "In 2016, President Barack Obama told his staff that Donald Trump’s election victory was “not the apocalypse”. By any definition, he was correct. But understood in the original sense of the Greek word apokálypsis, meaning “unveiling”, Obama could not give the same reassurance in 2025."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂ep Proto-Indo-European *-o Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó Proto-Hellenic *apó Ancient Greek ᾰ̓πό (ăpó) Ancient Greek ἀπο- (apo-) Ancient Greek καλύπτω (kalúptō) Ancient Greek ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalúptō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σις (-sis) Ancient Greek ᾰ̓ποκᾰ́λῠψῐς (ăpokắlŭpsĭs)der. Latin apocalypsisbor. Middle English apocalips English apocalypse From Middle English apocalips, from Latin apocalypsis, from Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis, “revelation”, literally “uncovering”), from ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalúptō, “to reveal”), from ἀπό (apó, “back, away from”) + καλύπτω (kalúptō, “to cover”), + -σις (-sis, suffix forming nouns). The sense evolution to "catastrophe, end of the world" stems from the depiction of such events in the biblical Book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse of (i.e. Revelation to) John. The verb is from the noun and, in sense 1, a semantic loan from the etymonic Ancient Greek verb ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalúptō, “to reveal”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈpɑkəlɪps/
- British English: /əˈpɒkəlɪps/