What's the difference between calamity and misery?

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.

Misery


Definition:

  • (n.) Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe.
  • (n.) Cause of misery; calamity; misfortune.
  • (n.) Covetousness; niggardliness; avarice.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Northern Ireland will not be dragged back by terrorists who have nothing but misery to offer."
  • (2) The Coalition promises to add more misery to their lives.
  • (3) I thought she had been put out of her misery by marriage but now she is a widow.
  • (4) This is not some sophisticated, Westminstery battle, but a life-and-death, misery-or-decency choice about the very basics of life for hundreds of thousands of older British people.
  • (5) "While the country is sunk in misery, families are ruined and children are growing up in poverty, this guy turns up and we pay €91m for him.
  • (6) It is only going to cause more disruption and misery for passengers.
  • (7) An arms embargo should be imposed on Israel, the former international development secretary Andrew Mitchell has said , as he warned that the level of misery and carnage in Gaza was likely to poison the remaining goodwill in the region for generations.
  • (8) In Kew Gardens, west London, 18mm of rain fell in just an hour on Saturday afternoon with other deluges causing travel misery.
  • (9) So, in The Devil Wears Prada , the ferocious magazine chief played by Meryl Streep is beset by secret misery: unfaithful husband, tricky kids, wig issues.
  • (10) He skirted round the issue of historic responsibility for the misery but referred to the sheer scale of the sacrifice, pointing out that, among more than 14,000 parishes in the whole of England and Wales, only about 50 so-called "thankful parishes" saw all their soldiers return.
  • (11) Spanish football fans’ habit of waving white hankies tends to be derisive, signifying that they wish a hapless manager to be put out of their club’s misery.
  • (12) Above all, MPs should vote to stop needless misery for families afflicted by this rare but terrible disorder.
  • (13) At the same time, by achieving a state of misery through following her mother's orders, she exposed her as ridiculous, and thus covertly discharged considerable aggression.
  • (14) Labour are finally crafting a clearer line on Brexit: this morning, the shadow chancellor warned that “losing access to the single market would be devastating for jobs, livelihoods and our public services”, that Britain didn’t vote for “economic misery and the loss of jobs”, and that the government was “abandoning Britain’s clear national interests by putting narrow party political concerns first.” These are good lines – and clarify that Labour’s priority is single-market access – but they will only cut through if repeated in similar language until people can hardly bear to hear them anymore.
  • (15) Behind the chancellor, Tories kept up a wall of noise, laughing and jeering at the misery guts on the benches opposite.
  • (16) Oxygen supply by this route, however, may enable the inner ear tissue alive even in misery perfusion and recover the high tone potential as a therapy of otitis media with effusion.
  • (17) It wasn’t too long ago that I was sitting inside a tent with newfound friends, fasting on the National Mall and feeling a profound hunger – literally, yes, but also a hunger within, to see an end to the misery endured by those who come to our country to escape poverty and violence in search of a bright future for their families.
  • (18) Forty percent of An-ICH were treated conservatively and the outcome was very misery (no useful life and 94% was poor or dead).
  • (19) Most human misery can be blamed on failed relationships and physical and mental illness rather than money problems and poverty, according to a landmark study by a team of researchers at the London School of Economics (LSE).
  • (20) While a US presidential visit would normally be expected to command the lion's share of attention in South Korea, the country remains preoccupied with the misery wrought by the sinking of the passenger ferry.