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Havoc vs Turmoil - What's the difference?

havoc | turmoil |

As nouns the difference between havoc and turmoil

is that havoc is widespread devastation, destruction while turmoil is a state of great disorder or uncertainty.

As verbs the difference between havoc and turmoil

is that havoc is to pillage while turmoil is to be disquieted or confused; to be in commotion.

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!

    turmoil

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A state of great disorder or uncertainty.
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=June 19, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC Sport
    • , title=]http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18181971 England 1-0 Ukraine] , passage=Oleg Blokhin's side lost the talismanic Andriy Shevchenko to the substitutes' bench because of a knee injury but still showed enough to put England through real turmoil in spells.}}
  • Harassing labour; trouble; disturbance.
  • * Shakespeare
    • And there I'll rest, as after much turmoil , / A blessed soul doth in Elysium.
  • *, chapter=7
    • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=The turmoil went on—no rest, no peace. […] It was nearly eleven o'clock now, and he strolled out again. In the little fair created by the costers' barrows the evening only seemed beginning; and the naphtha flares made one's eyes ache, the men's voices grated harshly, and the girls' faces saddened one.}}

    Synonyms

    * chaos, disorder

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To be disquieted or confused; to be in commotion.
    • (Milton)
  • (obsolete) To harass with commotion; to disquiet; to worry.
  • * Spenser
    • It is her fatal misfortune to be miserably tossed and turmoiled with these storms of affliction.

    External links

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