Dictionary

catastrophize en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /kəˈtæstɹəfaɪz/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English catastrophe Proto-Indo-European *-id- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-idyéti Proto-Hellenic *-íd͏̌d͏̌ō Ancient Greek -ῐ́ζω (-ĭ́zō)bor. Late Latin -izōder. Middle French -iserbor. Middle English -isen English -ize English catastrophize From catastrophe + -ize.

Meanings

1. (intransitive, transitive) To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic.
2. (intransitive, transitive) To expose a behavior pattern of seeking the worst interpretation and magnifying the disagreeable outcomes (of).
   • Particularly likely to overreact are those who tend to catastrophize (Ellis, 1962) and those who have Type A personalities (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974). 1947, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, University of Michigan Research Center for Group Dynamics, Human Relations:
   • Another way to catastrophize is to jump to an extreme conclusion from an unimportant or irrelevant event. 2001, David H. Barlow, Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders:
   • [I]ndividuals who catastrophized reported worse health-related quality of life, higher psychological distress, and perceived more somatic symptoms, worse consequences, and more severe emotional impact as compared to those participants who did not catastrophize. 2017, LeeAnne B. Sherwin, Emily Leary, Wendy A. Henderson, “The association of catastrophizing with quality-of-life outcomes in patients with irritable bowel syndrome”, in Quality of Life Research, volume 26, number 8, →DOI:
   • “The Great Feminization” catastrophizes wildly about the future, presumably because what’s happening in the present utterly undermines its central thesis. 2025 November 5, Sophie Gilbert, “No, Women Aren’t the Problem”, in The Atlantic:
3. (obsolete) To end a comedy.

Forms

Deriveds

catastrophization · catastrophizer

Relateds

deteriorationism · negativity bias · ruminate · doompost · declinism

Synonyms

awfulize