apocalypse
/əˈpɒkəlɪps/ · a·poc·a·lypse
noun
- A revelation, especially of a divine or prophetic nature. The scientist’s breakthrough was hailed as an apocalypse that reshaped the field.
- The unveiling of events prophesied in the biblical Book of Revelation; the final judgment and destruction of the world. Many cultures have myths that describe an apocalypse when the heavens fall.
- The Book of Revelation itself, the final book of the New Testament. She spent the semester studying the symbolism in the apocalypse.
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Did you know? Although today we think of an apocalypse as a world‑ending disaster, the word originally meant simply “a revelation,” and its catastrophic sense grew only after the medieval fascination with apocalyptic literature.