Pandemonium

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The Word of the Day for June 5 is:

Pandemonium   \pan-duh-MOH-nee-um \   noun 
     1: the capital of Hell in Milton's Paradise Lost
     2 : the infernal regions : hell
   *3 not capitalized  : a wild uproar : tumult

Example sentence: 
     The power failure occurred during rush hour, and, with none of the traffic 
lights working, pandemonium ensued at all the major intersections.

Did you know?
     How better to create a name for the gathering place of all demons than by 
combining the Greek prefix "pan-," meaning "all," with Greek "daimon," meaning 
"evil spirit"? That's what John Milton did, coining "Pandaemonium" to name the 
capital of Hell in his 17th-century epic poem Paradise Lost. Over time, 
"Pandaemonium" (or "Pandemonium") came to designate all of hell, and was used 
as well for earthbound dens of iniquity. We might have Mark Twain to thank for 
turning the word from its evil ways, when in 1872 he wrote in Roughing It: 
"Natives from the several islands ... had made the place a pandemonium every 
night with their howlings and wailings, beating of tom-toms and dancing." Ever 
since then, we've had the extended sense of "a wild uproar or commotion." 

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.