chaos
Pronunciation: /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/
The English word “chaos” has 6 meanings listed here.
noun
- The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
- Any state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.
- A behavior of iterative nonlinear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
- One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.
- A vast chasm or abyss.
- A given medium; a space in which something exists or lives; an environment.
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “vast chasm, void”). Doublet of gas, which was borrowed through Dutch. Displaced native Old English dwolma. 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…
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.