disastrous
/dɪˈzæs.tɹəs/adjective
disastrous is spelled D-I-S-A-S-T-R-O-U-S. The wrong spelling people search most is disasterous: about 210 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 3 in 10 of all searches for the word. Disastrous is an adjective meaning “Of the nature of a disaster; calamitous”.
How many letters and syllables are in disastrous?
| Letters | 10: D-I-S-A-S-T-R-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.8 times per million words; the 11,541st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, disasterous, about 210 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 disastrous?
Disastrous is spelled D-I-S-A-S-T-R-O-U-S. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 3 in 10 of the searches for disastrous 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 disastrous?
Disastrous appears 4.8 times per million words in written English, the 11,541st 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 disastrous?
- UK /dɪˈzɑː.stɹəs/
- US /dɪˈzæs.tɹəs/
- Australia /dɪˈzaː.stɹəs/
Disastrous has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-disastrous.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Qwertygiy-disastrous.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of disastrous
- more disastrous comparative
- most disastrous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does disastrous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of the nature of a disaster; calamitous.
- 2
Foreboding disaster; ill-omened.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Disastrous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | désastreux |
| German | desaströs, katastrophal, verheerend , verhängnisvoll |
| Portuguese | desastroso |
| Spanish | desastroso |
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 disastrous come from?
From disaster + -ous, after Middle French desastreux (modern French désastreux; from desastre (modern French désastre, “disaster”; from des- + astre, a calque of Italian disastro) + -eux), itself after Italian disastroso, from disastro + -oso, from dis- (“away, without”) (from Latin dis-) + astro (“star, planet”) (from Latin astrum (“star, celestial body”), from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́στρον (ắstron)).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).