chaos - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Borrowed 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.

chaos (usually uncountable, plural chaoses)

  1. The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
  2. 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
  3. (mathematics) A behaviour of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
  4. (fantasy) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.
  5. (obsolete) A vast chasm or abyss.
  6. (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.

in classical cosmogony

state of disorder

mathematics

From Dutch chaos, from Middle Dutch caos, from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

chaos (uncountable)

  1. chaos (disorder)
  2. (cosmogony) primordial disorder

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “vast chasm, void”).

chaos m inan

  1. chaos (state of disorder)
    Antonym: řád
    • 1875, Josef Durdík, Všeobecná aesthetika.[1]:
      Ano i když pomíjíme všechny všednější odstíny smyslu, básníci velebí řád, myslíce si při tom na protivu jeho, chaos, a vědouce, že ve všem co se líbí, musí být jistý řád; a na druhé straně mají právě zas řád za průjev nesvobody [...]

From Middle Dutch caos, from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

chaos m (uncountable)

  1. chaos (disorder)
    Synonyms: baaierd, rommel, wanorde, warboel
  2. (cosmogony) primordial disorder

Borrowed from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

chaos m (uncountable)

  1. chaos

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

chaos n sg (genitive chaī); second declension

  1. Alternative letter-case form of Chaos

Second-declension noun (neuter, Greek-type), singular only.

Learned borrowing from Latin chaos.

chaos m inan

  1. (Greek mythology) chaos (unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony)
    Hypernym: materia
  2. chaos (state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration)
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:zamieszanie
    Antonym: ład
  3. chaos (behavior of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time)

(adjectives):

(adverbs):

(nouns):

chaos m inan (genitive singular chaosu, nominative plural chaosy, genitive plural chaosov, declension pattern of dub)

  1. chaos