doomsday

/ˌdumzˈdeɪ/

/ˈdumzdeɪ/

Other forms: doomsdays

In many religions, doomsday is the end of the world and the moment of final judgment. In your everyday life, doomsday might be the date of the final exam in your math class.

Doomsday means utter catastrophe, in both religious and secular contexts. Many faiths believe in a literal doomsday, when life as we know it will come to an end. For centuries people have attempted to predict when this will occur, with the most recent guesses including 2011, 2012, and 2021. Generally, a doomsday scenario is any event that could cause human extinction, like catastrophic climate change or an asteroid impact. The Germanic root of doomsday means "judgment day."

Definitions of doomsday

1. noun

   (New Testament) day at the end of time following Armageddon when God will decree the fates of all individual humans according to the good and evil of their earthly lives
   synonyms: Day of Judgement, Day of Judgment, Doomsday, Judgement Day, Judgment Day, Last Day, Last Judgement, Last Judgment, crack of doom, day of reckoning, end of the world, eschaton

   type of:

   day

   some point or period in time
2. noun

   an unpleasant or disastrous destiny
   synonyms: day of reckoning, doom, end of the world

   type of:

   destiny, fate

   an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future