Désastre.
ETYM Latin calamitas, akin to in-columis unharmed: cf. French calamité.
An event resulting in great loss and misfortune; SYN. catastrophe, disaster, tragedy, cataclysm.
ETYM Latin catastropha, Greek, to turn up and down, to overturn; kata down + strephein to turn.
1. A state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune; SYN. disaster.
2. A sudden violent change in the earth's surface; SYN. cataclysm.
3. Literature, denouement or unraveling of drama after climax.
ETYM French désastre; pref. dés- (Latin dis-) + astre star, from Latin astrum; a word of astrological origin. Related to Aster, Astral, Star.
An act that has disastrous consequences.