Standard Lemma guide

calamitous

adj · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /kəˈlæmɪtəs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: K AH0 L AE1 M AH0 T AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Causing or involving calamity; disastrous.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • The city was struck by a calamitous cyclone.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: apocalyptic, calamitous, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, deadly, debacular, destructive, devastating, disadventurous, disastrous, eradicative, extirpative, fatal, harmful, lethal, pernicious, ruinous, woeful

Antonyms: uncalamitous

2

adj

Meaning 2

Of a person: involved in a calamity; hence, distressed, miserable.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: obsolete

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

(of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin- Charles Darwin- Douglas MacArthur

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • 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
  • it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it
  • a fateful error

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: black, disastrous, fatal, fateful

Antonyms: none provided

History

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.

Across languages

Translations

38 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: جَائِح (jāʔiḥ) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Old Armenian: աղիողորմ (ałiołorm) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Bulgarian: гибелен (gibelen) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Bulgarian: пагубен (paguben) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Bulgarian: свързан с бедствие (svǎrzan s bedstvie) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Catalan: calamitós — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Chinese Mandarin: 慘重 /惨重 (cǎnzhòng) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Chinese Mandarin: 晦氣 /晦气 (huìqì) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Danish: katastrofal — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Dutch: catastrofaal — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Dutch: rampzalig — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Finnish: katastrofaalinen — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Finnish: tuhoisa — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • French: calamiteux — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • French: désastreux — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Galician: calamitoso — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Galician: desastroso — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Georgian: დამაქცევარი (damakcevari) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Georgian: დამღუპველი (damɣuṗveli) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Georgian: უბედური (ubeduri) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Indonesian: malang — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Italian: calamitoso — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Latin: calamitōsus — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Latin: scelestus — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Macedonian: катастрофален (katastrofalen) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Malay: malang — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Pennsylvania German: iwwel — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Polish: zgubny — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Portuguese: calamitoso — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Portuguese: desastroso — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Romanian: calamitos — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Romanian: catastrofal — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Russian: губительный (gubitelʹnyj) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Sanskrit: वृजिन (vṛjina) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Spanish: calamitoso — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Spanish: desastroso — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Swedish: ödesdiger — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous
  • Ukrainian: бідола́шний (bidolášnyj) — causing or involving calamity — see also disastrous