adjective
definition
Of or pertaining to a cataclysm; causing great destruction or upheaval; catastrophic.
example
It is believed that a cataclysmic impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Examples of cataclysmic in a Sentence
This cataclysmic earthquake nearly leveled all of San Francisco when it struck on the morning of Wednesday, April 18th.
This cataclysmic eruption may have been triggered by a menacing flyby, perhaps of a planet in a long period orbit around our sun.
During this gate opening, humankind will leap to the next level of evolution and the message from the Mayans is for everyone to re-examine their lives so we don't become victims of the impending cataclysmic events.
The question remains, will this Fifth World be heralded by a cataclysmic event like the one that took out the dinosaurs, or will it be a kind of ascension for humans?
He journeys to the cave to get answers for Jor-El, and his biological father explains that he must bring the three crystals together immediately to avert cataclysmic devastation.
Lyell marshalled all the observations he could collect in support of this principle, teaching that the present is the key to the past, and arraying all obtainable evidence against the cataclysmic theories of Cuvier.
His reactionary and retarding ideas as a special creationist and his advocacy of the cataclysmic theory of change exerted a baneful influence until overthrown by the uniformitarianism of James Hutton (1726-1797) and Charles Lyell (1797-1875) and the evolutionism of Darwin.
The most popular theories revolve around a celestial alignment, mega solar flares or a magnetic pole shift that will cause cataclysmic events that ravage the earth.
In philosophy Agassiz was distinctly a disciple of Cuvier and supporter of the doctrine of special creation, and to a more limited extent of cataclysmic extinctions.
The history of the crust of the earth was explained by Lyell as due to a process of slow development, in order to effect which he called in no cataclysmic agencies, no mysterious forces differing from those operating at the present day.
Together with these statements in our sources are still mingled fragments of the more ordinary cataclysmic, apocalyptic conceptions, which in spite of much ingenious exegesis, cannot be brought into harmony with Christ's predominant teaching, but remain as foreign elements in the words of the Master, possibly brought back through his disciples, or, more probably, used by Jesus uncritically - a part of the current religious imagery in which he shared.