Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A condition or place of great disorder or confusion.
- noun A disorderly mass; a jumble.
- noun The disordered state of unformed matter and infinite space supposed in some cosmogonic views to have existed before the ordered universe.
- noun Chaos theory.
- noun Mathematics A dynamical system that has a sensitive dependence on its initial conditions.
- noun Obsolete An abyss; a chasm.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A vacant space or chasm; empty, immeasurable space.
- noun The confused or formless elementary state, not fully existing, in which the universe is supposed to have been latent before the order, uniformities, or laws of nature had been developed or created: the opposite of
cosmos . - noun A confused mixture of parts or elements; confusion; disorder.
- noun In the language of the alchemists, the atmosphere: first so used by Paracelsus.
- noun [capitalized] The void of unformed matter personified and deemed by some among the Greeks as the oldest of the gods.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Archaic An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm.
- noun The confused, unorganized condition or mass of matter before the creation of distinct and orderly forms.
- noun Any confused or disordered collection or state of things; a confused mixture; confusion; disorder.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete A vast
chasm orabyss . - noun The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of
cosmogony - noun Any state of disorder, any confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.
- noun obsolete, rare A given
medium ; a space in which something exists or lives; anenvironment . - noun mathematics Behaviour of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
- noun fantasy One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to
law .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (Greek mythology) the most ancient of gods; the personification of the infinity of space preceding creation of the universe
- noun the formless and disordered state of matter before the creation of the cosmos
- noun a state of extreme confusion and disorder
- noun (physics) a dynamical system that is extremely sensitive to its initial conditions
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Some of the early investigators of chaos were the American physicist Mitchell Feigenbaum; the Polish-born mathematician and inventor of fractals see fractal geometry Benoit Mandelbrot; the American mathematician James Yorke, who popularized the term chaos; and the American meteorologist Edward Lorenz.
Exponential Growth in Physical Systems #2 « Climate Audit 2007
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Hiroshi believes that although very chaotic with a ‘mess’ of cables, this chaos is also beautiful.
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I hope that the chaos is abating on schedule today!
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I love San Diego as a city, but it simply can no longer handle this event, and this nearly insignificant expansion isn't going to change anything. agonist yeah, the lines suck but the chaos is also kindof exciting. you have to be a hardcore fan to get into some of the panels and that in itself is like a geeky badge of coolness.
San Diego Convention Center Plans $753 million Expansion in Bid to Keep Comic-Con | /Film 2010
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He thinks of it as planet Earth and that Earth is this spaceship, carrying us through what he calls the chaos of space into safety.
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He thinks of it as planet Earth and that Earth is this spaceship, carrying us through what he calls the chaos of space into safety.
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He thinks of it as planet Earth and that Earth is this spaceship, carrying us through what he calls the chaos of space into safety.
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As readers, we know the chaos is there because the existence of the characters implies it, however, we're not forced to try to take it all in.
Sharpe's People zornhau 2007
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Did you know that the word child comes from the same root as the word chaos?
Enough Already Peter Walsh 2009
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Plus, one California mayor will tell us his plan for fixing what he calls the chaos now masquerading as a border.
uselessness commented on the word chaos
An entirely separate concept from anarchy. Best illustrated, perhaps, by Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park. See also butterfly effect.
December 26, 2006
rfb commented on the word chaos
winner of the contest held sepcifically for youths.
In the justification given, it is mentioned that 'chaos' means as much as a' void' - definitely not what I think when I see my room...
April 26, 2008
bilby commented on the word chaos
I am not tired or sad
I see whiteness, towers of chaos
I touch the ink, my palms a paradise of speech.
- Qassim Haddad, 'Space'.
September 16, 2008
Telofy commented on the word chaos
The Chaos and The Chaos
August 12, 2009
bilby commented on the word chaos
Chaos in Singapore.
January 11, 2010