calamitous
/kəˈlæmɪtəs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 2.43 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Example Sentences
- "The city was struck by a calamitous cyclone."
- "[T]he fallacie of Æquivocation and Amphibologie, […] conclude from the ambiguity of ſome vvord, or the ambiguous ſintaxis of many put together. From this fallacy aroſe the calamitous error of the Jevves, miſapprehending the Propheſies of their Meſſias, and expounding them alvvayes unto literall and temporal expectation."
- "The next year vvas calamitous, bringing ſtrange fluxes upon men, and murren upon Cattel."
- "In former times it vvas a diſmal and calamitous thing for a tradeſman to break: vvhen it befell a family, it put all into confuſion and diſtraction; […]"
- "Let him therefore lay dovvn his employment, vvhatever it be, vvhen he can no longer exert his former activity or attention; for nothing is more calamitous, than to croud the ſtage till a general hiſs commands him to depart."
- "For critics, foremost among them liberal intellectuals and human rights activists, Xi [Jinping]'s first term has proved calamitous. Some had hoped he would prove a political reformer. Instead, China's authoritarian leader has waged war on dissent with unexpected ferocity, throwing some opponents in jail and forcing others overseas."
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.
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: *kelh₂-, calamiteux, calamitōsus
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /kəˈlæmɪtəs/
- British English: /kəˈlæmɪtəs/
Usage
Inflected Forms
more calamitous (comparative)
most calamitous (superlative)