What does disastrous mean?
Word: Disastrous
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Disastrous means causing great damage or harm, or going very badly.
Synonyms: terrible, tragic, ruinous
Antonyms: lucky, fortunate
How do you spell disastrous?
Syllables: di - sas - trous
Tricky part: The e of disaster is dropped: it is disastrous, not disasterous. Children who say it carefully as dis-as-ter-ous add the extra e.
Watch out for: disasterous, dissastrous, disastrus
Memory tip: The e ran away from the disaster. Once you add ous, the e has gone, leaving t-r-o-u-s.
Disastrous in a sentence
Example 1: The drought was disastrous for the wheat crop.
Example 2: Forgetting our tickets would be disastrous.
Example 3: Our first rehearsal was disastrous, but the final show went well.
Fun Fact
Disastrous has been used in English since the 1580s; it came from the French word desastreux.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) disastrous
b) adventerous
c) mysterous
d) dangerus
Show answer
a) disastrous. Dangerous, mysterious and adventurous have each lost or changed a letter in the middle.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word:
disastrous
a) successful
b) shocking
c) harmful
d) dreadful
Show answer
a) successful. Successful means things went well, which is the opposite.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct letters to form a word:
d_s_strous
a) i, e
b) y, a
c) i, a
d) e, a
Show answer
c) i, a. Dis starts the word, and the next vowel is the a of disaster.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
tsoudaisrs
a) distrust
b) disastrous
c) disasters
d) dissatisfy
Show answer
b) disastrous. Disasters has an e and lacks o and u, so it cannot fit.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A disastrous storm is one that...
a) leaves homes and fields ruined
b) brings a light, cooling shower
c) passes harmlessly far out at sea
d) cools the evening air a little
Show answer
a) leaves homes and fields ruined
2. Which result would be disastrous for a cricket team?
a) being all out for 12 runs
b) scoring 300 in 50 overs
c) taking a hat-trick early
d) winning by ten wickets
Show answer
a) being all out for 12 runs
