CHAOS
What does "CHAOS" mean?
Complete disorder and confusion; the formless void from which the universe arose.
Meanings
- A state of total confusion and disorder. When the lights went out, the kitchen descended into chaos.
- In Greek myth, the formless primordial void that existed before creation. From Chaos, the early Greek poets said, the first gods emerged. formal
- In mathematics and physics, behavior so sensitive to initial conditions that it appears unpredictable. Weather is a classic example of chaos: a tiny change ripples into vast differences. technical
Did you know?
- In Greek myth 'chaos' did not mean a mess: in Hesiod's 'Theogony' it names a gaping void or chasm - the very first thing to exist before any gods.
- Modern chaos theory began with a rounding error: in 1961 Edward Lorenz re-entered '0.506' instead of '0.506127' into a weather model and watched the forecast diverge completely - the seed of the 'butterfly effect'.
Word origin
From Greek 'khaos' ('chasm, void, abyss'), originally meaning a gaping empty space; via Latin 'chaos' into English, where the sense of 'utter disorder' developed later.
Remember it
CHAOS hides 'HA' in the middle - the laugh of disorder as your tidy plans fall apart.
A little poem
Before the first word,
before the gods learned their names-
only the wide gap.
haiku
Wordplay
- I tried to organize a support group for chaos theory. Nobody showed up at the same time, place, or universe.
What it teaches
What looks like pure disorder often hides a deeper rule - chaos is structure you cannot yet predict.
Quick facts
What does CHAOS mean?
Complete disorder and confusion; the formless void from which the universe arose.
Is CHAOS a valid word?
Yes — CHAOS is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is CHAOS?
CHAOS has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does CHAOS come from?
From Greek 'khaos' ('chasm, void, abyss'), originally meaning a gaping empty space; via Latin 'chaos' into English, where the sense of 'utter disorder' developed later.
What can CHAOS teach us?
What looks like pure disorder often hides a deeper rule - chaos is structure you cannot yet predict.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.