chaos

See also Chaos

English

Wikipedia

Etymology

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

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 to the 1960s.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/, SAMPA: /keIQs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪɒs

Noun

chaos (usually uncountable; plural chaoses)

1. (obsolete) A vast chasm or abyss.
2. The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony
3. Any state of disorder, any confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.
   • 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

4. (obsolete, rare) A given medium; a space in which something exists or lives; an environment.
   • 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.ii.3:

     What is the centre of the earth? is it pure element only, as Aristotle decrees, inhabited (as Paracelsus thinks) with creatures whose chaos is the earth: or with fairies, as the woods and waters (according to him) are with nymphs, or as the air with spirits?

5. (mathematics) Behaviour of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
6. (fantasy) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.

Synonyms

• See Wikisaurus:disorder

Antonyms

• (classical cosmogony): cosmos
• (state of disorder): order

Derived terms

terms derived from chaos

chaos theory chaotic

controlled chaos

Translations

in classical cosmogony

Greek: χάος (el) (cháos) n. Japanese: 混沌 (ja) (こんとん, konton)

Russian: хаос (ru) (xáos, xaós) m.

state of disorder

Albanian: kaos (sq) m. Arabic: فوضى (ar) (fawDaa) f. Armenian: քաոս (hy) (k'aos) Azeri: hərc-mərclik (az) Belarusian: хаос (be) (xaós) m., хаас (be) (xáas) m. Bosnian: haos (bs) m. Bulgarian: хаос (bg) m., безредие (bg) n. Catalan: caos (ca) m. Chinese: Mandarin: 混沌 (zh) (hùndùn), 混亂 (zh), 混乱 (zh) (hùnluàn), 渾沌 (zh), 浑沌 (zh) (húndùn) Croatian: haos (hr) m. Danish: kaos (da) n. Dutch: chaos (nl) m. Esperanto: ĥaoso (eo) Estonian: kaos (et) Finnish: kaaos (fi), epäjärjestys (fi), sekasorto (fi) French: chaos (fr) m. Galician: caos (gl) m. German: Unordnung (de) f., Chaos (de) n. Greek: χάος (el) (cháos) n. Hebrew: תוהו (he) (tóhu), תוהו ובוהו (he) (tóhu vavóhu), כאוס (he) (kéos) Hungarian: káosz (hu)

Icelandic: ringulreið (is) f. Ido: kaoso (io) Indonesian: kekacauan (id), prahara (id) Interlingua: chaos Italian: caos (it) m. Japanese: 混乱 (ja) (こんらん, konran), 無秩序 (ja) (むちつじょ, muchitsujo), 混沌 (ja) (こんとん, konton) Korean: 혼돈 (ko) (hondon) (混沌 (ko)) Latvian: haoss (lv) m. Lithuanian: chaosas (lt) m. Polish: chaos (pl) m. Portuguese: caos (pt) m. Romanian: haos (ro) n. Romansch: caos (rm) m. Russian: хаос (ru) (xáos, xaós) m., беспорядок (ru) (besporjádok) m. Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: хаос (sh) m., (Croatian) каос (sh) m. Roman: haos (sh) m., (Croatian) kaos (sh) m. Spanish: caos (es) Swahili: kesheshe Swedish: kaos (sv) n. Ukrainian: хаос (uk) (xaós) m. Vietnamese: hỗn loạn (vi) (混亂 (vi))

mathematics

Bulgarian: хаос (bg) m. Greek: χάος (el) (chàos) n.

Japanese: カオス (ja) (kaosu) Russian: хаос (ru) (xáos, xaós) m.

See also

• entropy
• discord
• capricious

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Dutch

Noun

chaos m. (uncountable)

1. chaos

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French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin chaos, from Ancient Greek χάος.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /kao/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

chaos m. (usually uncountable)

1. chaos

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Polish

Etymology

From Ancient Greek χάος (khaos, “vast chasm, void”)

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈxaɔs̪/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

chaos m.

1. chaos

Declension

	Singular only
Nominative	chaos
Genitive	chaosu
Dative	chaosowi
Accusative	chaos
Instrumental	chaosem
Locative	chaosie
Vocative	chaosie

Derived terms

• chaotyczny