# chaos

Pronunciation: US say "KAY-ahs" /ˈkeɪ.ɑs/; UK say "KAY-os" /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/

## Noun

1. A state of complete disorder or confusion; a jumbled mixture with no clear arrangement.
   - Simple: Complete disorder, with no plan or order to anything.
   - _After the storm knocked out the power, the busy train station quickly descended into chaos._
   - _After the referee's final call, chaos broke out across the stands._
2. Apparently random behavior of a deterministic nonlinear system, in which tiny differences in starting conditions grow into very large differences over time.
   - Simple: The way some systems behave when tiny changes at the start grow into huge differences later.
   - _Start two double pendulums a hair's width apart and within seconds their swings bear no resemblance, a textbook display of chaos._
   - _Long-range weather prediction is limited by chaos: small errors in today's measurements grow steadily as the model runs forward._
3. The formless, unordered state of primordial matter, as described in classical accounts of how the universe began.
   - Simple: Matter with no shape or order, which old stories say existed before the world was made.
   - _Greek poets described how order first emerged from primordial chaos._
   - _In many creation myths, a maker draws land and sea out of chaos._
4. In some fantasy settings, one of two fundamental cosmic forces, standing in opposition to law.
   - Simple: In some fantasy stories, one of two great forces of the world that fights against law.
   - _In this fantasy world, every wizard draws power from either law or chaos, the two great forces that shape the universe._
   - _The novel's gods are split between chaos and law, each side pulling the world its own way._

## Noun

5. A vast chasm, gulf, or yawning abyss. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A huge, deep, empty gap or gulf.
6. A surrounding medium or environment within which something exists or lives. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: The space or surroundings where something lives or exists.

## Origin

This is a learned borrowing from Ancient Greek χάος (kháos), meaning "vast chasm, void," and is a doublet of "gas." It was first used in the original Greek sense, then meant "primordial matter" from the 16th century, took on the figurative sense of "confusion, disorder" by the late 16th century, and gained its technical scientific meaning in the 1970s.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/chaos (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).