• (British) IPA: /ˈkeɪ.ɒs/
• (America) IPA: /ˈkeɪ.ɑs/

chaos (uncountable)

1. The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
2. Any state of disorder; a confused or amorphous mixture or conglomeration.
   • , How Your City Is Killing You With Ugliness

     Disorder conveys chaos and makes one feel that no one is in charge.

3. (mathematics) A behaviour of iterative non-linear systems in which arbitrarily small variations in initial conditions become magnified over time.
4. (fantasy) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to law.
5. (obsolete) A vast chasm or abyss.
6. (obsolete, rare) A given medium; a space in which something exists or lives; an environment.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970 ↗:

     , II.ii.3:

     What is the centre of the earth? is it pure element only, as Aristotle decrees, inhabited (as Paracelsus thinks) with creatures whose chaos is the earth: or with fairies, as the woods and waters (according to him) are with nymphs, or as the air with spirits?

• See Thesaurus:disorder

• (classical cosmogony) cosmos
• (state of disorder) order

• chaotropic
• chaotropism

• Russian: ха́ос
• Spanish: caos

• French: chaos
• German: Unordnung, Chaos
• Italian: caos
• Portuguese: caos
• Russian: ха́ос
• Spanish: caos

• Russian: ха́ос

chaos (uncountable)

1. Initialism of congenital high airway obstruction syndrome
2. (slang) Initialism of can't have anyone over syndrome