apocalypse
Plural: apocalypses
Noun
- a cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil
- the last book of the New Testament; contains visionary descriptions of heaven and of conflicts between good and evil and of the end of the world; attributed to Saint John the Apostle
- A revealing, especially a prophecy of, or the unfolding of, supernatural events.
- A huge disaster; a cataclysmic event; destruction or ruin of large scope and scale.
- The unveiling of events prophesied in the Revelation; the second coming and the end of life on Earth; global destruction.
- The Book of Revelation.
Examples
- A nuclear apocalypse would have been possible if tensions went out of control during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- The early development of Perl 6 was punctuated by a series of apocalypses by Larry Wall.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English apocalips, from Latin apocalypsis, from Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis, “revelation”, literally “uncovering”), from ἀπό (apó, “back, away from”) and καλύπτω (kalúptō, “I cover”). The sense evolution to "catastrophe, end of the world" stems from the depiction of such events in the biblical Book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse of (i.e. Revelation to) John.
Synonyms
Book of Revelation, Revelation, Revelation of Saint John the Divine, armageddon, doomsday, end times, eschaton, revelation#Noun
Scrabble Score: 19
apocalypse: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordapocalypse: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
apocalypse: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary