Definition of catastrophe

• n. - An event producing a subversion of the order or system of things; a final event, usually of a calamitous or disastrous nature; hence, sudden calamity; great misfortune.
• n. - The final event in a romance or a dramatic piece; a denouement, as a death in a tragedy, or a marriage in a comedy.
• n. - A violent and widely extended change in the surface of the earth, as, an elevation or subsidence of some part of it, effected by internal causes.