The apocalypse is the complete destruction or end of the world, or at least something so catastrophic it feels like the world is ending. When you hear about an apocalyptic scenario in movies or books, you're usually seeing cities in ruins, civilization collapsed, and survivors struggling through a devastated landscape.

We sometimes use apocalypse more loosely. Someone might joke that their messy room looks apocalyptic. The teenage section of a clothing store during a sale might seem like a retail apocalypse. These exaggerations borrow the word's sense of total devastation, even when the actual situation is less dire.

Apocalyptic stories, from zombie outbreaks to asteroid impacts, fascinate people partly because they let us imagine how we'd survive when everything familiar disappears. They're disasters on such a grand scale that normal life becomes impossible and everyone has to start over.