1. A place of wild disorder or lawless confusion: The term pandemonium was coined (created) by John Milton as the name for the capital of Hell in his poem "Paradise Lost", in 1667; in which he wrote: "Meanwhile the winged heralds . . . throughout the host proclaim a solemn council forthwith to be held at Pandaemonium, the high capital of Satan and his peers."

The modern use of pandemonium for “uproar, chaos; noisy and chaotic” came about in the mid-nineteenth century.

When capitalized, Pandemonium refers to the capital of Hell; and when it is written in lower case, it refers to “noisy and chaotic”.

2. Etymology: John Milton formed the word from the Greek prefix pan-, “all” and daimon, “demon”; hence, “place of all the demons”.