"catastrophize" meaning in English

See catastrophize in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /kəˈtæstɹəfaɪz/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-catastrophize.wav Forms: catastrophizes [present, singular, third-person], catastrophizing [participle, present], catastrophized [participle, past], catastrophized [past]
Etymology: From catastrophe + -ize. Etymology templates: {{af|en|catastrophe|-ize}} catastrophe + -ize Head templates: {{en-verb}} catastrophize (third-person singular simple present catastrophizes, present participle catastrophizing, simple past and past participle catastrophized)
  1. (transitive, intransitive) To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic. Tags: intransitive, transitive
    Sense id: en-catastrophize-en-verb-BNqy0QdK
  2. (transitive, intransitive, psychology) To expose a behaviour pattern of seeking worst interpretation and magnifying disagreeable outcomes (of). Tags: intransitive, transitive Categories (topical): Psychology
    Sense id: en-catastrophize-en-verb-xSNrRoLF Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -ize, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 14 75 11 Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -ize: 28 51 21 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 12 70 18 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 11 78 11 Topics: human-sciences, psychology, sciences
  3. (obsolete) To end a comedy. Tags: obsolete
    Sense id: en-catastrophize-en-verb-pCVZ1FZb
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: catastrophise (english: non-Oxford British English) Derived forms: catastrophization, catastrophizer Related terms: ruminate, doompost, declinism, deteriorationism, negativity bias

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "catastrophization"
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    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
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        "2": "catastrophe",
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      "name": "af"
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  "etymology_text": "From catastrophe + -ize.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
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    },
    {
      "form": "catastrophizing",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "form": "catastrophized",
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "ca‧tas‧tro‧phize"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "ruminate"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "doompost"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "declinism"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "deteriorationism"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "negativity bias"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic."
      ],
      "id": "en-catastrophize-en-verb-BNqy0QdK",
      "links": [
        [
          "regard",
          "regard"
        ],
        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
        ],
        [
          "disastrous",
          "disastrous"
        ],
        [
          "catastrophic",
          "catastrophic"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, intransitive) To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Psychology",
          "orig": "en:Psychology",
          "parents": [
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            "Sciences",
            "Society",
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            "Fundamental"
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          "source": "w"
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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        {
          "_dis": "28 51 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -ize",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "12 70 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "11 78 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1947, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, University of Michigan Research Center for Group Dynamics, Human Relations:",
          "text": "Particularly likely to overreact are those who tend to catastrophize (Ellis, 1962) and those who have Type A personalities (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974).",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2001, David H. Barlow, Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders:",
          "text": "Another way to catastrophize is to jump to an extreme conclusion from an unimportant or irrelevant event.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "[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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To expose a behaviour pattern of seeking worst interpretation and magnifying disagreeable outcomes (of)."
      ],
      "id": "en-catastrophize-en-verb-xSNrRoLF",
      "links": [
        [
          "psychology",
          "psychology"
        ],
        [
          "behaviour",
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        [
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        [
          "seek",
          "seek"
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        [
          "worst",
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        [
          "magnify",
          "magnify"
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        [
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, intransitive, psychology) To expose a behaviour pattern of seeking worst interpretation and magnifying disagreeable outcomes (of)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "transitive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "psychology",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To end a comedy."
      ],
      "id": "en-catastrophize-en-verb-pCVZ1FZb",
      "links": [
        [
          "comedy",
          "comedy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) To end a comedy."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/kəˈtæstɹəfaɪz/"
    },
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      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-catastrophize.wav",
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "english": "non-Oxford British English",
      "word": "catastrophise"
    }
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  "word": "catastrophize"
}
{
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  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "catastrophization"
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    {
      "word": "catastrophizer"
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  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
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        "2": "catastrophe",
        "3": "-ize"
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      "expansion": "catastrophe + -ize",
      "name": "af"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From catastrophe + -ize.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "catastrophizes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "catastrophizing",
      "tags": [
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        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "catastrophized",
      "tags": [
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        "past"
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    },
    {
      "form": "catastrophized",
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
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    "ca‧tas‧tro‧phize"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "ruminate"
    },
    {
      "word": "doompost"
    },
    {
      "word": "declinism"
    },
    {
      "word": "deteriorationism"
    },
    {
      "word": "negativity bias"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
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        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic."
      ],
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        [
          "regard",
          "regard"
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        [
          "situation",
          "situation"
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          "disastrous"
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        [
          "catastrophic",
          "catastrophic"
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      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, intransitive) To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
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        "English transitive verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
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          "ref": "1947, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, University of Michigan Research Center for Group Dynamics, Human Relations:",
          "text": "Particularly likely to overreact are those who tend to catastrophize (Ellis, 1962) and those who have Type A personalities (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974).",
          "type": "quote"
        },
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          "ref": "2001, David H. Barlow, Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders:",
          "text": "Another way to catastrophize is to jump to an extreme conclusion from an unimportant or irrelevant event.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "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:",
          "text": "[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.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To expose a behaviour pattern of seeking worst interpretation and magnifying disagreeable outcomes (of)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "psychology",
          "psychology"
        ],
        [
          "behaviour",
          "behaviour"
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        ],
        [
          "seek",
          "seek"
        ],
        [
          "worst",
          "worst"
        ],
        [
          "interpretation",
          "interpretation"
        ],
        [
          "magnify",
          "magnify"
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        [
          "outcome",
          "outcome"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive, intransitive, psychology) To expose a behaviour pattern of seeking worst interpretation and magnifying disagreeable outcomes (of)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "transitive"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "psychology",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with obsolete senses"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To end a comedy."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "comedy",
          "comedy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) To end a comedy."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/kəˈtæstɹəfaɪz/"
    },
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      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-catastrophize.wav",
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "english": "non-Oxford British English",
      "word": "catastrophise"
    }
  ],
  "word": "catastrophize"
}

Download raw JSONL data for catastrophize meaning in English (4.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (b941637 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.