DISASTERS Synonyms: 73 Similar and Opposite Words

disasters

noun

plural of disaster

as in catastrophes

a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction hurricanes are natural disasters

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in failures

something that has failed an utter disaster, the play opened and closed on the same miserable night

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of disasters The rescue mission had been suspended earlier due to the fear of secondary disasters caused by the overflowing barrier lake upstream of the town. — Sophie Tanno, CNN Money, 28 Aug. 2026 Information about major disasters is typically released with a delay and without personal stories of victims. — Niranjan Shrestha, Chicago Tribune, 28 Aug. 2026 Information about major disasters is typically released by officials with a delay and without personal stories of victims. — Niranjan Shrestha, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026 Purchase and install emergency generators, integrate electrical systems, and conduct testing and preparedness activities so participating rural hospitals can maintain critical services during outages and disasters. — Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas Online, 27 Aug. 2026 Australia’s National Emergency Management Agency has warned that the growing trend of concurrent and cascading disasters is expected to continue and, in many cases, increase. — Milad Haghani, Scientific American, 27 Aug. 2026 Wildfires, earthquakes, severe storms and other disasters can leave little time to gather supplies or figure out where to go, so planning ahead can make all the difference. — Melanie Marshall, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Aug. 2026 Flores experienced one of the country’s deadliest disasters in 1992, when an earthquake and ensuing tsunami killed about 2,500 people. — ABC News, 19 Aug. 2026 But when disasters hit – during an earthquake, hurricane or wildfire evacuation, for example – cellphones can be easily lost or forgotten, their batteries can run down with no way to recharge them, and cell service can become unreliable. — Lee Ann Rawlins Williams, The Conversation, 17 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for disasters

Noun

That didn’t stop catastrophes like the 2018 fire in the Sierra foothills that destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85.

— Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026
Experts warn that catastrophes like this are likely to happen again because rising temperatures in the Himalayas, which are warming faster than the global average, destabilize the region's 60,000 glaciers and trigger more avalanches.

— Brittney Melton, NPR, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of catastrophes

Noun

Summary The Lindsay Clancy case, involving postpartum psychosis, highlights critical gaps in maternal health support and systemic failures.

— Forbes.com, Forbes.com, 30 Aug. 2026
Fifty years on, these songs capture the feelings and failures not of Los Angeles but of America, too.

— Grayson Haver Currin, Pitchfork, 30 Aug. 2026

Definition of failures

Noun

Those efforts have only intensified following a year in which the NFL community dealt with the tragedies that saw Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland and Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Rondale Moore both take their lives.

— Mike Jones, New York Times, 26 Aug. 2026
Elordi is terrific as Hig, a man whose personal tragedies and grief do not erase his belief there is still something out there worth saving despite all the evidence that good no longer exists.

— Pete Hammond, Deadline, 25 Aug. 2026

Definition of tragedies

Noun

The team’s offensive overhaul was one of the biggest stories of the offseason, and the lineup proved to be one of the sport’s biggest disappointments of the first half.

— Grant Brisbee, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026
This year, the Sky’s biggest investments were also their greatest disappointments.

— Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 2026

Definition of disappointments

Noun

Based on Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, the surrealist musical follows one nuclear family across thousands of years and three apocalypses.

— Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 10 Dec. 2025
And a lot of the pseudepigrapha, like the fake gospels and fake apocalypses, fill in gaps in the record that can serve latter-day, post-biblical purposes.

— JSTOR Daily, JSTOR Daily, 16 Oct. 2025

Definition of apocalypses

Noun

Biden raised troop levels there to about 100,000, backed by seven fighter squadrons, six destroyers, and roughly 100 nuclear gravity bombs.

— JENNIFER KAVANAGH, Foreign Affairs, 28 Aug. 2026
Four Russian glide bombs destroyed a sorting center belonging to the postal service Nova Poshta in the northern Sumy region, and a drone smashed one of its depots in the Kyiv region, the company said.

— Hanna Arhirova, Los Angeles Times, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of bombs

Noun

To avert future calamities, the forest outside Bordeaux must be thinned and its fire breaks widened, said Arthur Guérin-Turcq, a Sorbonne University geographer whose family cultivates pines near Le Porge.

— Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026
Indeed, conflict and calamities are major factors in financial repression.

— Jason Ma, Fortune, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of calamities

Noun

Other than taxpayers, bodega owners stand to be some of the biggest losers if New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) realizes his dream of city-run grocery stores.

— Editorial Board, Washington Post, 27 Aug. 2026
Amid the stresses of the Arctic, scientists are rethinking the idea that all life is a cutthroat competition with winners and losers.

— ABC News, ABC News, 25 Aug. 2026

Definition of losers

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disasters

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“Disasters.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/disasters. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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