This word is acceptable for play in the US & UK dictionaries that are being used in the following games:

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n. An event that brings terrible loss, lasting distress, or severe affliction; a disaster: A hurricane would be a calamity for this low-lying coastal region.

n. Dire distress resulting from loss or tragedy.

n. An event resulting in great loss.

n. The distress that results from some disaster.

n. Any great misfortune or cause of misery; -- generally applied to events or disasters which produce extensive evil, either to communities or individuals.

n. A state or time of distress or misfortune; misery.

n. Any great misfortune or cause of misery; in general, any event or disaster which produces extensive evils, as loss of crops, earthquakes, etc., but also applied to any misfortune which brings great distress upon a single person; misfortune; distress; adversity.

n. Synonyms Disaster, Catastrophe, etc. (see misfortune), hardship, adversity, affliction, blow, stroke.

n. an event resulting in great loss and misfortune

"Happening now, Robert Gates officially taking charge of the Pentagon and the troubled war in Iraq with a swearing in ceremony -- he's warning that failure in Iraq would be what he called a calamity that would haunt the U.S. -- his words -- for decades."

misfortune    bad luck   

plague    tidal wave    visitation    act of god    kiss of death    vis major    unavoidable casualty    force majeure    tsunami    meltdown   

extremity    infelicity    adversity    unhappiness    mischance    disaster    mishap    misfortune    affliction    exigency   

amity   

misfortune    disaster    hardship    peril    misery    woe    famine    humiliation    disgrace    temptation