What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Havoc vs Sadness - What's the difference?

havoc | sadness | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between havoc and sadness

is that havoc is widespread devastation, destruction while sadness is the state or emotion of being sad.

As a verb havoc

is to pillage.

As an interjection havoc

is a cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.

havoc

English

Alternative forms

* havock (e.g. in Milton)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • widespread devastation, destruction
  • * Bible, Acts viii. 3
  • As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.
  • * Addison
  • Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make / Among your works!
  • :* {{quote-book
  • , year=1918 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=The People that Time Forgot , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=But when I had come to that part of the city which I judged to have contained the relics I sought I found havoc that had been wrought there even greater than elsewhere. }}
  • mayhem
  • Usage notes

    The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc. Old Hungarian Goulash?, The Grammarphobia Blog, October 31, 2008

    Derived terms

    * play havoc, raise havoc, wreak havoc, cry havoc, break havoc

    Verb

  • To pillage.
  • * 1599 , , Henry V , Act I, Scene II:
  • To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
  • To cause .
  • Usage notes

    As with other verbs ending in vowel + -c, The gerund-participle is sometimes spelled havocing, and the preterite and past participle is sometimes spelled havoced; for citations using these spellings, see their respective entries. However, the spellings havocking and havocked are far more common. Compare panic, picnic.

    References

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.
  • * Toone
  • Do not cry havoc , where you should but hunt / With modest warrant.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Cry "havoc", and let slip the dogs of war!

    sadness

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The state or emotion of being sad.
  • (countable) An event in one's life that causes sadness.
  • She has experienced many sadnesses in her forty years.

    Synonyms

    * (state of being sad) forlornness, melancholy * (event causing sadness) misfortune, woe