Standard Lemma guide

catastroscope

noun · 1 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

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1

noun

Meaning 1

A catastrophe

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: dated, excessive, humorous, usually

Examples

  • 2000, "Catastroscope" Research & Development vol. 42 p. 13 →ISSN The 200th anniversary of the US in 1976 coincided with the sesquimillennial of the fall of Rome in 476 A.D. ... It apparently was what the late comedian Jimmy Durante might have said, " It's a catastroscope!"
  • 2007, Max Sollitt, Catastroscopes: A Creative and Adventurous Australian Bloke's Battle with Clinical Depression and Anno Domini, (Melbourne : Temple House) →ISBN

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Blend of catastrophe + -scope. Associated with comedian Jimmy Durante by the 1940s, and the Jennings books of Anthony Buckeridge in the 1950s.