Catastrophe
Catastrophe , noun
[Latin catastropha, Greek {not transcribed}, from {not transcribed} to turn up and down, to overturn; kata` down + {not transcribed} to turn.]
1.
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.
The strange catastrophe of affairs now at London.
The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw.
2.
The final event in a romance or a dramatic piece; a denouement, as a death in a tragedy, or a marriage in a comedy.
3.
(Geology) 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. — Whewell