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chaos
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “vast chasm, void”). Doublet of gas, which was borrowed through Dutch.
In Early Modern English, used in the sense of the original Greek word. In the meaning "primordial matter" from the 16th century. Figurative usage in the sense "confusion, disorder" from the 17th century. The technical sense in mathematics and science dates from the 1960s.
Pronunciation
Noun
chaos (usually uncountable, plural chaoses)
- The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
- Any state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.
- to descend into chaos
- After the earthquake, the local hospital was in chaos
- 1977, Irwin Edman, Adam, the Baby, and the Man from Mars, page 54:
- or out of these chaoses order may be made, out of this ferment a clear wine of life. There are chaoses that have gone too far for retrieval
- (mathematics) A behaviour of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
- (fantasy) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.
- (obsolete) A vast chasm or abyss.
- (obsolete, rare) A given medium; a space in which something exists or lives; an environment.
- 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Aire rectified. With a digression of the Aire.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 3, page 320:
- What is in the centre of the earth, or is it pure element only, as Ariſtotle decrees inhabited as Paracelſus thinks with creatures, whoſe Chaos is the earth with Fairies, as the woods and waters according to him, are with Nymphes or as the ayre with ſpirits.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
- antichaos
- antichaotic
- antichaotropic
- chaogenous
- chaoite
- chaolite
- chaological
- chaologist
- chaology
- chaomancy
- chaophilia
- chaophilic
- chaoplex
- chaoplexic
- chaoplexity
- chaoplexologist
- chaoplexology
- chaoptin
- chaos cooking
- chaoslike
- chaos magic
- chaosphere
- chaos theorist
- chaos theory
- chaotic
- chaotically
- chaotician
- chaoticist
- chaoticity
- chaoticness
- chaotization
- chaotize
- chaotolerance
- chaotolerant
- chaotrope
- chaotropic
- chaotropism
- chaotropy
- controlled chaos
- homeochaos
- homeochaotic
- hyperchaotic
- nonchaotic
- nonchaotically
- nonchaotropic
- primordial chaos
- semichaotic
- unchaotic
Related terms
Translations
in classical cosmogony
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mathematics
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See also
Anagrams
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Afrikaans
Etymology
From Dutch chaos, from Middle Dutch caos, from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).
Noun
chaos (uncountable)
- chaos (disorder)
- (cosmogony) primordial disorder
Czech
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “vast chasm, void”).
Pronunciation
Noun
chaos m inan
Declension
Declension of chaos (hard masculine inanimate)
Related terms
See also
Further reading
- “chaos”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
- “chaos”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
- “chaos”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025
- "chaos a řád" in Google Books search
Dutch
Etymology
From Middle Dutch caos, from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).
Pronunciation
Noun
chaos m (uncountable, no diminutive)
Antonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
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French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).
Pronunciation
Noun
chaos m (uncountable)
Further reading
- “chaos”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈkʰa.ɔs]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈkaː.os]
Noun
chaos n sg (genitive chaī); second declension
- alternative letter-case form of Chaos
- a chasm
- Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, Lucam 16:26:;
- et in his omnibus inter nos et vos chaos magnum firmatum est ut hi qui volunt hinc transire ad vos, non possint, neque inde huc transmeare.
- And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither.
Declension
Second-declension noun (neuter, Greek-type), singular only.
Descendants
References
- “chaos”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “chaos”, in The Perseus Project (1999), Perseus Encyclopedia
- “chaos”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- “chaos”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
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Polish
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Latin chaos.
Pronunciation
Noun
chaos m inan
- (Greek mythology) chaos (unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony)
- Hypernym: materia
- chaos (state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration)
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:zamieszanie
- Antonym: ład
- chaos (behavior of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time)
Declension
Declension of chaos
Related terms
adjectives
adverbs
nouns
Further reading
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Slovak
Pronunciation
Noun
chaos m inan (genitive singular chaosu, nominative plural chaosy, genitive plural chaosov, declension pattern of dub)
Declension
References
- “chaos”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025
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