catastrophe
ca·tas·tro·phe/kəˈtæstɹəfi/noun
catastrophe is spelled C-A-T-A-S-T-R-O-P-H-E, 4 syllables: ca·tas·tro·phe. The wrong spelling people search most is catastrophy: about 210 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Catastrophe is a noun meaning “Any large and disastrous event of great significance”. The plural of catastrophe is catastrophes.
How many letters and syllables are in catastrophe?
| Letters | 11: C-A-T-A-S-T-R-O-P-H-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: ca·tas·tro·phe |
| In writing | 3.6 times per million words; the 13,695th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, catastrophy, about 210 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell catastrophe?
Catastrophe is spelled C-A-T-A-S-T-R-O-P-H-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for catastrophe in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is catastrophe?
Catastrophe appears 3.6 times per million words in written English, the 13,695th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce catastrophe?
- US /kəˈtæstɹəfi/
Catastrophe has 4 syllables, split ca·tas·tro·phe in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-catastrophe.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of catastrophe
- catastrophes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does catastrophe mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any large and disastrous event of great significance.
The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophe.
- 2
A disaster beyond expectations.
- 3
The dramatic event that initiates the resolution of the plot; the dénouement.
- 4
A type of bifurcation, where a system shifts between two stable states.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Catastrophe in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense any large and disastrous event of great significance:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | catastrophe |
| German | Katastrophe, Unglück, Unheil |
| Portuguese | catástrofe |
| Spanish | catástrofe |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does catastrophe come from?
From Ancient Greek καταστροφή (katastrophḗ), from καταστρέφω (katastréphō, “to overturn”), from κατά (katá, “down, against”) + στρέφω (stréphō, “to turn”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).