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Debacle vs Calamitous - What's the difference?

debacle | calamitous |

As a verb debacle

is .

As an adjective calamitous is

concerning or involving calamity, disastrous.

debacle

English

Alternative forms

* * (rare) * (rare)

Noun

(en noun)
  • An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences.
  • * 1952 , ,
    • The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.
  • * 1996 , Richard L. Canby, "SOF: An Alternative Perspective on Doctrine", in Schultz et al'' (eds), ''Roles And Missions of SOF In The Aftermath Of The Cold War , p. 188,
    • The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia and lays the ground for a military debacle .
  • * 2002, Jacqueline West, South America, Central America and the Carribean 2002 , Routledge, ISBN 1-857431-21-9, page 68,
    • The Falklands-Malvinas débâcle provided the opportunity to restructure the military High Command; Alfonsín removed anti-democratic senior officers and replaced them with more co-operative ones.
  • * 2007 , BP pipeline failure: hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources , "Statement by Peter Van Tuyn", p. 46,
    • The BP Prudhoe Bay debacle [the thus provides but the latest in a long line of reasons why leasing this region of the NPR-A is a bad idea.
  • (ecology) A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.
  • * 1836 , , How to Observe: Geology , p. 69
  • * 1837 , John Lee Comstock, Outlines of Geology , p. 51
    • For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually
  • * 1872, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution'', p. 425,
    • When this débâcle commences

    Usage notes

    * Although authorities say that the word is properly spelled with both accents their use tends to be variable, with either or both often dropped, particularly in non-technical writing. Its headword in the online Oxford English Dictionary has none.

    Synonyms

    * (An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously) fiasco

    References

    * 2005, Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised) , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-861057-2 * 1998, The Dorling Kindersley Illustrated Oxford Dictionary'', Dorling Kindersley Limited and Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-7513-1110-3, page 211 * 2006, Ed. Michael Allaby, A Dictionary of Ecology , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860905-1 * 1999, Ed. Robert Allen, Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-860947-7 * 1999, Ed. Jennifer Speake, The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-425-16995-2

    calamitous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Concerning or involving calamity, disastrous.
  • :The city was struck by a calamitous cyclone.

    • Synonyms

    * destructive * fatal