act of God en · NOUN
Meanings
-
An unforeseen occurrence beyond one's control, such as a natural disaster.
They didn't get shot to death in hold-ups, strangled to death in rapes, stabbed to death in saloons, bludgeoned to death with axes by parents or children or die summarily by some other act of God.
1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Soldier in White”, in Catch-22 […], New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 168:Infrastructure failures tend to be treated like acts of God, but of course they aren't really.
2019 October, Ian Walmsley, “Cleaning up”, in Modern Railways, page 42:The action of “The Discovery of Heaven” combines the emotional melodrama of a telenovela with a sequence of events that an insurance lawyer would call acts of God.
1997 January 5, Jack Miles, “On a Mission From God”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see act, of, God.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Act of God | alternative | lexicographic | |
| acts of God | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Coordinates
Synonyms
Translations (18)
ru стихи́йное бе́дствие (unforeseen occurrence) · tl katalagahan ng Diyos (unforeseen occurrence) · cmn 不可抗力 (unforeseen occurrence) · es cosa de Dios (unforeseen occurrence) · tr kader (unforeseen occurrence) · tl katalagahan ng Bathala (unforeseen occurrence) · fr force majeure (unforeseen occurrence) · af daad van God (unforeseen occurrence) · pl siła wyższa (unforeseen occurrence) · sv högre hand (unforeseen occurrence) · es caso fortuito (unforeseen occurrence) · es fuerza mayor (unforeseen occurrence) · ru форс-мажо́р (unforeseen occurrence) · pt força maior (unforeseen occurrence) · cmn 天災 /天灾 (unforeseen occurrence) · fi luonnonmullistus (unforeseen occurrence) · de höhere Gewalt (unforeseen occurrence) · pt caso fortuito (unforeseen occurrence)