calamity
kuh-LAM-ih-teenounMeaning a disaster that causes great loss or suffering
Memory hook no CALM at all: a disaster. A giant wave sweeps away the whole sandcastle city the children spent all day building; to them, it is a calamity.
The flood was the worst calamity the valley had seen in a hundred years.
In context What began as a small kitchen fire became a calamity: the flames spread down the whole block, and dozens of families lost their homes.
Similar disaster, catastrophe, tragedy, cataclysm
Opposite blessing, godsend
From Latin calamitas, “disaster, misfortune.”