chaos

Borrowed 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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪ.ɑs/

• Audio (UK):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -eɪɒs

chaos (usually uncountable, plural chaoses)

1. The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
2. Any state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.

   to descend into chaos

   After the earthquake, the local hospital was in chaos

   • 1977, Irwin Edman, Adam, the Baby, and the Man from Mars, page 54:

     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

3. (mathematics) A behaviour of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
4. (fantasy) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.
5. (obsolete) A vast chasm or abyss.
6. (obsolete, rare) A given medium; a space in which something exists or lives; an environment.
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Aire rectified. With a digression of the Aire.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 2, member 3, page 320:

     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 according to him, are with Nymphes or as the ayre with ſpirits.

• See Thesaurus:disorder

• (antonym(s) of “classical cosmogony”): cosmos
• (antonym(s) of “state of disorder”): order

• chaotropic
• chaotropism

• entropy
• discord

• Socha, oshac

From Dutch chaos, from Middle Dutch caos, from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

chaos (uncountable)

1. chaos (disorder)
2. (cosmogony) primordial disorder

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “vast chasm, void”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈxaos]

chaos m inan

1. chaos (state of disorder)

   Antonym: řád

   • 1875, Josef Durdík, Všeobecná aesthetika.[1]:

     Ano i když pomíjíme všechny všednější odstíny smyslu, básníci velebí řád, myslíce si při tom na protivu jeho, chaos, a vědouce, že ve všem co se líbí, musí být jistý řád; a na druhé straně mají právě zas řád za průjev nesvobody [...]

• zmatek
• změť
• nepořádek
• neřád
• nahodilost
• entropie
• nekonzistence

• “chaos”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “chaos”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “chaos”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025
• "chaos a řád" in Google Books search

From Middle Dutch caos, from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

• IPA^(key): /ˈxaː.ɔs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cha‧os

chaos m (uncountable)

1. chaos (disorder)

   Synonyms: baaierd, rommel, wanorde, warboel

2. (cosmogony) primordial disorder

• netheid
• orde

• chaostheoretisch
• chaostheorie
• chaotisch
• gas

• Afrikaans: chaos
• → West Frisian: gaos
• → Indonesian: kaos

Borrowed from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

• IPA^(key): /ka.o/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o

chaos m (uncountable)

1. chaos

• “chaos”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʰa.ɔs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkaː.os]

chaos n sg (genitive chaī); second declension

1. alternative letter-case form of Chaos
2. a chasm
   • Late 4th century, Jerome [et al.], transl., edited by Roger Gryson, Biblia Sacra: Iuxta Vulgatam Versionem (Vulgate), 5th edition, Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, published 2007, →ISBN, Lucam 16:26:

     et in his omnibus inter nos et vos chaos magnum firmatum est ut hi qui volunt hinc transire ad vos, non possint, neque inde huc transmeare.

     And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither.

     Translates the Greek word χάσμα (khásma)

     ;

Second-declension noun (neuter, Greek-type), singular only.

• French: chaos
• Italian: caos, caosse, cao
• Portuguese: caos
• Romanian: haos, caos
• Spanish: caos

• “chaos”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “chaos”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[2]
• “chaos”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “chaos”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

Learned borrowing from Latin chaos.

• IPA^(key): /ˈxa.ɔs/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɔs
• Syllabification: cha‧os

chaos m inan

1. (Greek mythology) chaos (unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony)

   Hypernym: materia

2. chaos (state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration)

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:zamieszanie

   Antonym: ład

3. chaos (behavior of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time)

• chaos in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• chaos in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• chaos in PWN's encyclopedia

• IPA^(key): [ˈxaɔs]

chaos m inan (genitive singular chaosu, nominative plural chaosy, genitive plural chaosov, declension pattern of dub)

1. chaos

• “chaos”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2025