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Added 9 October 2026

calamitous

/kəˈlæmɪtəs/ adjective

In Latin: calamitōsus, scelestus Wiktionary

adjective Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about calamitous at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Causing or involving calamity; disastrous.
The city was struck by a calamitous cyclone.
Of a person: involved in a calamity; hence, distressed, miserable.

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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