(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
A ~ is a very bad accident such as an earthquake or a plane crash, especially one in which a lot of people are killed.
It was the second air ~ in the region in less than two months...
= tragedy
N-COUNT
2.
If you refer to something as a ~, you are emphasizing that you think it is extremely bad or unacceptable.
The whole production was just a ~!
= catastrophe
N-COUNT emphasis
3.
Disaster is something which has very bad consequences for you.
The government brought itself to the brink of fiscal ~...
= catastrophe
N-UNCOUNT
4.
If you say that something is a recipe for ~, you mean that it is very likely to have unpleasant consequences.
PHRASE: v-link PHR