Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of a cataclysm.
  • Of or pertaining to cataclysmists; holding the doctrine of violent upheavals: as, the cataclysmal school of geologists.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to a cataclysm.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective As destructive as a cataclysm.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective severely destructive

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The belief belongs to what may be called the cataclysmal theory of progress, which improves the world by sudden starts, and clings so fondly to liquor-laws, and has profound faith in specific remedies for moral and political diseases.

    Reflections and Comments 1865-1895 Edwin Lawrence Godkin 1866

  • Holy crap, tonight was almost cataclysmal for the party.

    Gaming Tonight chaosreality 2006

  • The almost cataclysmal development of new machinery, the discovery of new materials, and the appearance of new social possibilities through the organised pursuit of material science, has given enormous and unprecedented facilities to the spirit of innovation.

    A Modern Utopia Herbert George 2006

  • And then a lank, grey-bearded man, perspiring copiously in a noble passion of self-help, blind to all earthly things save that glaring, bait, thrust between them in a cataclysmal rush towards that alluring “x 5 pr. G.”

    When the Sleeper Wakes 2006

  • As I was playing my dad yesterday, I thought back upon those days of constantly inclement tempers, and was astonished at my cataclysmal past.

    deadhead sticker on a cadillac 2006

  • As I was playing my dad yesterday, I thought back upon those days of constantly inclement tempers, and was astonished at my cataclysmal past.

    love-forty 2006

  • Years ago he began to lay the groundwork for the gigantic, cataclysmal acts of dark necromancy that should rock the earth to its core and enslave its inhabitants.

    Conan the Avenger Howard, Robert E. 1968

  • Perhaps she's so deaf that nothing short of a cataclysmal uproar will reach her auditory nerves. '

    The Beetle Richard Marsh

  • And then a lank, grey-bearded man, perspiring copiously in a noble passion of self-help, blind to all earthly things save that glaring, bait, thrust between them in a cataclysmal rush towards that alluring "x 5 pr. G."

    When the Sleeper Wakes 1906

  • The almost cataclysmal development of new machinery, the discovery of new materials, and the appearance of new social possibilities through the organised pursuit of material science, has given enormous and unprecedented facilities to the spirit of innovation.

    A Modern Utopia 1906

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