chaos

See also: Chaos, CHAOS, and chãos

English

Etymology

Borrowing 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 to 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. (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.

   Disorder conveys chaos and makes one feel that no one is in charge. ― Max Roscoe, "How Your City Is Killing You With Ugliness"

   • 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, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069:, 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

Related terms

• chaotropic
• chaotropism

Translations

in classical cosmogony

• Dutch: chaos (nl) m, baaierd (nl) m
• Greek: χάος (el) n (cháos)
• Japanese: 混沌 (こんとん, konton)
• 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) (kʿaos)
• Azeri: 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 (zh), 混乱 (zh) (hùnluàn), 渾沌 (zh), 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)
• 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
• 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
• 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)

• Spanish: caos (es)
• Swahili: kesheshe
• Swedish: kaos (sv) n
• Tagalog: dimayaw
• Thai: ความยุ่งเหยิง (th), ความโกลาหล (th), 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

• Russian: ха́ос (ru) m (xáos), хао́с (ru) m (xaós)
• Swedish: kaos (sv) n
• Tagalog: dimayaw
• Thai: ความอลวน, ความโกลาหล (th), ความไร้ระเบียบ

See also

• entropy
• discord
• capricious

---

Dutch

Etymology

From Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

chaos m (uncountable)

1. chaos

Synonyms

• rommel
• wanorde
• warboel

Antonyms

• netheid
• orde

Derived terms

• chaotisch

---

French

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.o/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

chaos m (uncountable)

1. chaos

External links

• “chaos” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

---

Latin

Etymology

Borrowing from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos).

Noun

chaos n (genitive chaī); second declension

1. chaos

Declension

Second declension, Greek type.

Case	Singular
nominative	chaos
genitive	chaī
dative	chaō
accusative	chaos
ablative	chaō
vocative	chaos

Descendants

• Italian: caosse, cao, caos

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 Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray

---

Polish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈxaɔs̪/

• 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