69 alternatives to the word “disaster”

“Disaster” is used in the public arena to describe almost any negative situation. News media and social media use it to exaggerate, especially where images are available to dramatize. Common use of the word today is in phrases like “social media disaster,” “PR disaster,” and so on. It is also used to exaggerated effect in sentences like “His presentation today was a disaster” and “Her clothes sense is a disaster.”

The English language offers many alternatives to “disaster” and “disastrous.” Using some of these will add color to your content. To help you avoid disastrous overuse of the word, here is a list of 69 alternatives. Please note that some of the words are not necessarily direct synonyms, but can be used to more accurately describe various unfortunate situations:

1. accident
2. adversity
3. affliction
4. bad news
5. bane
6. bitter pill
7. blight
8. blow
9. breakdown
10. break up
11. bust
12. cataclysm
13. calamity
14. casualty
15. catastrophe
16. collapse
17. collision
18. crash
19. crushing
20. danger
21. debacle
22. defeat
23. depression
24. destructive
25. disheartening
26. dire
27. downfall
28. emergency
29. eruption
30. failure
31. fall
32. farce
33. fiasco
34. flop
35. frightful
36. grief
37. hardship
38. harm
39. hazard
40. horrendous
41. incident (suggested by Jasmine)
42. mess
43. misery
44. mischance
45. misfortune
46. mishap
47. misadventure
48. misfortune
49. pathetic
50. ravaging
51. reverse
52. rough
53. ruin
54. ruination
55. ruinous
56. setback
57. shambles
58. shock
59. slip
60. staggering blow
61. strife
62. tragedy
63. trouble
64. undoing
65. upheaval
66. upset
67. washout
68. woe
69. wrack and ruin

My acknowledgment to dedicated word lover, Laura Hale Brockway, who wrote an initial list of 50 alternative words to “disaster.”