What's the difference between calamite and calamity?
Calamite
Definition:
(n.) A fossil plant of the coal formation, having the general form of plants of the modern Equiseta (the Horsetail or Scouring Rush family) but sometimes attaining the height of trees, and having the stem more or less woody within. See Acrogen, and Asterophyllite.
Example Sentences:
(1) Such views are increasingly common all over Detroit, the forlorn former capital of America's car industry and now a by-word for calamitous urban decline.
(2) Opening heroin consumption rooms We have spent nearly 50 calamitous years treating drug addiction as a criminal justice matter rather than a social and medical problem.
(3) If that attitude could sometimes frustrate senior editors’ desire to raise standards – if it could, in the end, be blamed for the calamitous failure to spot the misdeeds of Johann Hari – it was also the only thing that kept the paper from falling apart completely: an irresistibly romantic underdog spirit, a sense that since this plainly wasn’t a viable business, it had to be a cause.
(4) That spirit of co-operation represents a drastic change from the calamitous Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, when diplomatic snubs and general distrust between the two countries wrecked any prospect for a deal.
(5) Without them, it would be like the calamitous three-day service outage of October 2011 – permanently.
(6) His seventh goal in his last seven games for Wales, after a calamitous mistake from Radja Nainggolan, was the difference on a evening that ended with the Real Madrid forward leaving the field to a standing ovation two minutes from time.
(7) As ruthless as Liverpool were with their finishing, in particular the irrepressible Luis Suárez , who scored twice to take his tally for the season to 22, Stoke were guilty of some calamitous defending and contributed largely to their own downfall.
(8) While calamitous action unfolds on screen, Green imparts anecdotes, socio-political analysis and the kind of life advice you might expect from his day-job as a best selling author and progressive digital campaigner.
(9) Rather than boasting of calamitous missions, the politicians responsible for them must be held to account.
(10) Second-chance Sunday in Gosford In truth, Justin Pasfield’s calamitous goalkeeping against Newcastle last week was about as cringe-worthy as his new hipster beard-haircut combination.
(11) Blair’s calamitous war in Iraq and Cameron’s radical domestic agenda implemented in a hung parliament are cited as examples of mighty power exerted against the will of the people.
(12) They’re a pro-X Factor paper.” But his book arguably also proves the alternative explanation for his calamitous public image.
(13) This is not to say that I think his presidency has been without its serious, even calamitous, failures, the most important of which is his unwillingness to intervene in any meaningful way in Syria.
(14) You would expect newspaper sales to drop in August as readers head for the beaches, so the important comparison is the year-on-year figures which range from catastrophic to calamitous.
(15) Referring repeatedly to “our friends and allies in the EU”, the prime minister added she had no interest in the bloc unravelling: “It remains overwhelmingly and compellingly in Britain’s national interest that the EU should succeed.” But she warned that if the EU 27 heeded those “voices calling for a punitive deal that punishes Britain”, it would amount to “an act of calamitous self-harm for the countries of Europe.
(16) The Kensington and Chelsea council leader, Nick Paget-Brown, stepped down on Friday along with his deputy following another calamitous week that included a bungled attempt by the council to hold a cabinet meeting behind closed doors.
(17) The victors will have a home tie against Watford, who scraped past Leeds thanks to a calamitous Scott Wootton own goal.
(18) But it wasn't just on the war on terror that opponents of the New World Order were shown to be right and its cheerleaders to be talking calamitous nonsense.
(19) Previous research has shown three quarters of the world’s listed reserves of carbon producing fuels must stay in the ground if the world is to avoid calamitous climate change.
(20) "Fears about growth in Europe, Asia and the US, where calamitous existing home sales figures were the focus...
Calamity
Definition:
(n.) Any great misfortune or cause of misery; -- generally applied to events or disasters which produce extensive evil, either to communities or individuals.
(n.) A state or time of distress or misfortune; misery.
Example Sentences:
(1) But if nothing changes, nothing will change, and these calamities will be with us once more.
(2) 18) Dallas Cowboys Last season: 8-8 Needs: Offensive line, safety, defensive tackle, running back Pick: Kenny Vaccaro, safety, Texas Tony Romo often carries the can for the Cowboys' offensive calamities, but the truth is that not many quarterbacks look great when they are running for their lives.
(3) They did not look like Stoke, exactly, they kept the ball on the floor a bit more than their opponents and did not go backwards quite so much, but in the first half at least there were two sides short of attacking ideas and genuine penetration and for either to score a goal it seemed likely a dead-ball routine or a defensive calamity would have to be involved.
(4) QPR appear to be on the verge of calamity at any point in defence.
(5) SJ Closs Edinburgh He is the Daffy Duck of politics – confident and self-satisfied, leading to calamity; then he pops up again, unabashed • As a fellow economist I fully endorse Larry Elliott’s demolition of Tory party assertions that all is well for the UK’s growing economy, and that Britain is paying its way ( The Tories’ ticking economic timebomb , 20 April).
(6) This system has now been refined to be used prospectively during the management stage of a calamity.
(7) Those who backed the wars in Iraq and Libya feel tainted by the bloodshed in the calamities that followed.
(8) US and Canadian oil policies, especially the tar sands schemes in Alberta, would increase the chances of global calamities, the imposters told their audience - but reassured them that the industry could keep "fuel flowing" by transforming the billions of people who died into oil.
(9) But they should be manageable and worth taking for the wider economic gains, notably averting what might have been an economic calamity.
(10) The community's children have been especially vulnerable to these calamities.
(11) The 2007 campaign was marked by dirty tricks charges against the Huhne camp by the man he (allegedly) dubbed "Calamity Clegg".
(12) I stand to appeal on behalf of the government and the people of Vanuatu that the global community give a lending hand in responding to these very current calamities that have struck us,” he said.
(13) The Crystal World is surely Ballard's most gorgeous calamity: apocalypse not as abolition but as transfiguration.
(14) By calculating the medical severity index, which is the product of the casualty load and the severity of the incident, and comparing this figure with the available total capacity of the medical services, which is the medical rescue capacity, the medical transport capacity and the hospital treatment capacity, the dispatcher at the control center can fairly quickly and precisely identify if a calamity is to be regarded as a disaster or not and if the region can cope with the situation.
(15) In Scotland, meanwhile, Labour has suffered a devastating calamity.
(16) But if the political will existed, calamity could be avoided with a fairly modest increase in the budget allocation .
(17) The disease that has brought these calamities to the pretty hills of Jinotega, in Nicaragua's central highlands, is new to most of the farmers I meet.
(18) Beckett, whose influence on Walsh is palpable, and Pinter would recognise that idea that beneath the surface of everyday life lays a gaping black hole: indeed Pinter from his youth frequently quoted a phrase of Cardinal Newman that creation is a vast "aboriginal calamity".
(19) Air brakes that would have prevented the disaster failed because they were powered by an engine that was shut down by firefighters as they dealt with a fire shortly before the calamity occurred, the head of the railway that operated the train said on Monday.
(20) The droughts will be far worse than the one in California – or those seen in ancient times, such as the calamity that led to the decline of the Anasazi civilizations in the 13 th century, the researchers said.