Synonyms:
calamity, catastrophe, disaster, tragedy, cataclysm
Meaning: an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; "the whole city was affected by the irremediable calamity"; "the earthquake was a disaster"
Synonyms:
tragedy
Meaning: drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity
Usage examples
Wendy was crying, for it was the first tragedy she had seen.
It struck me that the tale, as she told it, contained elements of tragedy.
How the solemn splendors of the half notes weave an atmosphere of mystic tragedy!
"Have you discovered anything unusual, Mrs. Morse, that had to do with this tragedy?"
"Where were you from ten o'clock to twelve of the morning of the tragedy?" was the first question put to her.
He is going to summon, before the magistrate, in the laboratory, all those who have played any part in this tragedy.
Once she told him the story of her first meeting with Donal--but she passed over the tragedy of their first parting.
When that which is and that which was Apart, intrinsic, stand, And this brief tragedy of flesh Is shifted like a sand;
Eryphylus his name was, and so sings My lofty Tragedy in some part or other; That knowest thou well, who knowest the whole of it.
Mr. Pembroke thought that he had a bad effect on Agnes, and prevented her from acquiescing in the tragedy as rapidly as she might have done.