chaos

See also: Chaos, CHAOS, and chãos

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos, “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 from the 1960s.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪɒs

Noun

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.
   • Max Roscoe, How Your City Is Killing You With Ugliness

     Disorder conveys chaos and makes one feel that no one is in charge.

   • 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.
   • Template:RQ:RBrtn AntmyMlncly, 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?

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:disorder

Antonyms

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

Derived terms

• chaos theorist
• chaos theory
• chaotic
• controlled chaos

 

Related terms

• chaotropic
• chaotropism

Translations

in classical cosmogony

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 混沌 (zh) (hùndùn)

• Dutch: chaos (nl) m, baaierd (nl) m
• Greek: χάος (el) n (cháos)

  Ancient Greek: χάος n (kháos)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 混沌 (こんとん, konton)
• Old English: dwolma m
• Romanian: haos (ro) n
• Russian: ха́ос (ru) m (xáos), хао́с (ru) m (xaós)
• Spanish: caos (es)
• Tagalog: dimayaw

state of disorder

• Albanian: kaos (sq) m
• Arabic: فَوْضَى f (fawḍā)
• Armenian: քաոս (hy) (kʻaos)
• Azerbaijani: hərc-mərclik
• Belarusian: хао́с m (xaós), ха́ас m (xáas)
• Bulgarian: хаос (bg) m (haos), безредие (bg) n (bezredie)
• Catalan: caos (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 混沌 (zh) (hùndùn), 混亂／混乱 (zh) (hùnluàn), 混乱 (zh) (hùnluàn), 渾沌／浑沌 (zh) (hùndùn), 浑沌 (zh) (húndùn)

• Danish: kaos n
• Dutch: chaos (nl) m, wanorde (nl) c
• Esperanto: ĥaoso, kaoso
• Estonian: kaos
• Finnish: kaaos (fi), epäjärjestys (fi), sekasorto (fi)
• French: chaos (fr) m
• Galician: caos (gl) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Unordnung (de) f, Chaos (de) n
• Greek: χάος (el) n (cháos)

  Ancient Greek: ταραχή f (tarakhḗ)

• Hebrew: תוהו (tóhu), תוהו ובוהו (tóhu vavóhu), כאוס (he) (kéos)
• Hungarian: káosz (hu)
• Icelandic: ringulreið (is) f
• Ido: kaoso (io)
• Indonesian: kekacauan (id), prahara (id)
• Interlingua: chaos
• Irish: anord m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: caos (it) m
• Japanese: 混乱 (ja) (こんらん, konran), 無秩序 (むちつじょ, muchitsujo), 混沌 (こんとん, konton), カオス (kaosu)
• Khmer: សង្ករ (km) (saŋ, sɑŋkɑɑ, sɑŋka’ra’)
• Korean: 혼돈 (ko) (hondon) (混沌 (ko))
• Lao: please add this translation if you can
• Latvian: haoss m
• Lithuanian: chaosas m
• Malay: huru hara
• Norwegian: kaos (no)
• Old English: dwolma m
• Persian: آشوب (fa) (āšub)
• Polish: chaos (pl) m
• Portuguese: caos (pt) m
• Romanian: haos (ro) n
• Romansch: caos m
• Russian: ха́ос (ru) m (xáos), хао́с (ru) m (xaós), беспоря́док (ru) m (besporjádok)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: хаос m (Bosnian, Serbian), каос m (Croatian)

  Roman: haos (sh) m (Bosnian, Serbian), kaos (sh) m (Croatian)

• Slovene: kaos m
• Spanish: caos (es)
• Swahili: kesheshe
• Swedish: kaos (sv) n
• Tagalog: dimayaw, kaguluhan
• Thai: ความยุ่งเหยิง (th) (kwaam-yûng-yə̌əng), ความโกลาหล (th) (kwaam-goo-laa-hǒn), ความสับสนวุ่นวาย
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: хао́с m (xaós)
• Vietnamese: hỗn loạn (vi) (混亂)

mathematics

• Bulgarian: хаос (bg) m (haos)
• Greek: χάος (el) n (cháos)
• Japanese: カオス (kaosu)
• Romanian: haos (ro) n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: ха́ос (ru) m (xáos), хао́с (ru) m (xaós)
• Swedish: kaos (sv) n
• Tagalog: dimayaw
• Thai: ความอลวน, ความโกลาหล (th) (kwaam-goo-laa-hǒn), ความไร้ระเบียบ

See also

• entropy
• discord
• capricious

Anagrams

• Socha, oshac

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Afrikaans

Etymology

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

Noun

chaos (uncountable)

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

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Dutch

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxaː.ɔs/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: cha‧os

Noun

chaos m (uncountable)

1. chaos (disorder)

   Synonyms: baaierd, rommel, wanorde, warboel

2. (cosmogony) primordial disorder

Antonyms

• netheid
• orde

Derived terms

• chaostheoretisch
• chaostheorie
• chaotisch

Descendants

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

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French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.o/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o

Noun

chaos m (uncountable)

1. chaos

Further reading

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

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Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkʰa.os/, [ˈkʰäɔs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈka.os/, [ˈkäːos]

Noun

chaos n sg (genitive chaī); second declension

1. Alternative letter-case form of Chaos

Declension

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

Case	Singular
Nominative	chaos
Genitive	chaī
Dative	chaō
Accusative	chaos
Ablative	chaō
Vocative	chaos

References

• “chaos”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “chaos”, in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia‎^[1]
• “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

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Polish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxa.ɔs/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

chaos m inan

1. chaos

Declension

Declension of chaos

	singular
nominative	chaos
genitive	chaosu
dative	chaosowi
accusative	chaos
instrumental	chaosem
locative	chaosie
vocative	chaosie

Derived terms

• chaotyczny