Category:Catastrophe

Ca*tas"tro*phe, n. Etym: [L. catastropha, Gr.

1. An event producing a subversion of the order or system of things; a final event, usually of a calamitous or disastrous nature; hence, sudden calamity; great misfortune. The strange catastrophe of affairs now at London. Bp. Buret. The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw. Woodward.

2. The final event in a romance or a dramatic piece; a denouement, as a death in a tragedy, or a marriage in a comedy.

3. (Geol.)

Defn: A violent and widely extended change in the surface of the earth, as, an elevation or subsidence of some part of it, effected by internal causes. Whewell.