/ˈkeɪ.ɒs/, /ˈkeɪ.ɑs/
OriginLearned borrowing from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “vast chasm, void”). Doublet of gas, which was borrowed through Dutch.
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 and science dates from the 1960s.
- uncountable, usuallyThe unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
- uncountable, usuallyAny state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.
“to descend into chaos”
“After the earthquake, the local hospital was in chaos”
“or out of these chaoses order may be made, out of this ferment a clear wine of life. There are chaoses that have gone too far for retrieval”
- uncountable, usuallyA behaviour of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
- uncountable, usuallyOne of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.
- obsolete, uncountable, usuallyA vast chasm or abyss.
- obsolete, rare, uncountable, usuallyA given medium; a space in which something exists or lives; an environment.
“What is in the centre of the earth, or is it pure element only, as Ariſtotle decrees inhabited as Paracelſus thinks with creatures, whoſe Chaos is the earth with Fairies, as the woods and waters accor”
- abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountableInitialism of congenital high airway obstruction syndrome.
- abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, slang, uncountableInitialism of can't have anyone over syndrome.
- GreekIn Greek mythology, the primordial state of disorder that exists before the creation of the world, or the first being or deity to exist.
- A planetoid and cubewano orbiting in the Kuiper belt.
- In the Warhammer franchise, a demonic antagonist that sends demons, monsters, warriors, and beasts to wage war on the games' setting.
“Chaos warrior, Chaos daemon”
Formschaoses(plural)