50 alternatives to the word “disaster”
In this exponentially long election cycle, we’ve heard it all — especially with regard to rhetoric.
Bluster, braggadocio, misstatements, lies, deflections, words that aren’t words, and mixed and mangled metaphors have littered the messages with which we’ve been bombarded.
One word stands out as having been flung around the most: “disaster.”
Over the past 16 months, this word has been tossed around more haphazardly than dirty clothes in a dorm room. It’s been so overused that it’s lost its meaning.
The English language offers a multitude of alternatives to “disaster” and “disastrous.” In the interest of keeping our language fresh and varying our words, here are several dozen alternatives:
- adversity
- affliction
- bane
- bitter pill
- blight
- breakdown
- break up
- cataclysm
- calamity
- catastrophe
- collapse
- crash
- crushing
- debacle
- defeat
- depression
- destructive
- disheartening
- dire
- downfall
- eruption
- failure
- farce
- fiasco
- flop
- frightful
- hardship
- horrendous
- mess
- misery
- mishap
- misadventure
- misfortune
- pathetic
- ravaging
- reverse
- ruination
- ruinous
- setback
- shambles
- shock
- slip
- staggering blow
- strife
- tragedy
- trouble
- undoing
- upheaval
- washout
- wrack and ruin
What terms would you add to the list, PR Daily readers?
This post was first published on Ragan Communication’s PR Daily.
