wreak havoc
Featured
Fossil Word
March 24, 2025
Fossil Word
“Wreak havoc” means to cause, or inflict, significant destruction, damage or chaos on a person, place or system, often in a sudden or unexpected manner. “Havoc” is a near-fossilized term, meaning it only rarely appears as a stand-alone word or even with other words. Occasionally it is used stand-alone, as in, “He brought havoc to the situation.” or with play, as in, “The weather played havoc with our plans.” But overwhelmingly havoc is wreaked.
Rate of Appearance in English Language Print
Google's Ngram project shows how often a pair of words has appeared in print every year since the 1800's.
Data from Google Books Ngram Viewer. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
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