WordWeb Online

1. A sudden violent change in the earth's surface
   - catastrophe
    
2. An event resulting in great loss and misfortune
   "the whole city was affected by the irremediable cataclysm"
   - calamity, catastrophe, disaster, tragedy

Derived forms: cataclysms

See also: cataclysmic

Type of: bad luck, geological phenomenon, misfortune

Encyclopedia: Cataclysm