chaos

Definition

The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.

Etymology

Learned borrowing 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.

Example Sentences

• "to descend into chaos"
• "After the earthquake, the local hospital was in chaos"
• "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"

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