Casualty
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /ˈkaʒʊ.əlti/ · Part of speech noun
Quick meaning: Casualty is a noun meaning Something that happens by chance, especially an unfortunate event; an accident, a disaster.
Meaning
Something that happens by chance, especially an unfortunate event; an accident, a disaster.
More Meanings
- A person suffering from injuries or who has been killed due to an accident or through an act of violence.
- (proscribed) Specifically, a person who has been killed (not only injured) due to an accident or through an act of violence; a fatality.
- (British) Clipping of casualty department: the accident and emergency department of a hospital providing immediate treatment.
- An incidental charge or payment.
- Someone or something adversely affected by a decision, event or situation.
- (military) A person in military service who becomes unavailable for duty, for any reason (notably death, injury, illness, capture, or desertion).
- (obsolete) Chance nature; randomness.
Example Sentences
The non-necessary [causes] follow; of which, saith Fuchsius, no art can be made, by reason of their uncertainty, casualty, and multitude […]
Among recent casualties is the S.B.B.'s branch from Nyon to Divonne-les-Bains, just across the French frontier, closed to all traffic at the commencement of the winter service.
1756, Samuel Johnson, “The Life of Sir Thomas Browne” in Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, p. xx, The course of his education was like that of others, such as put him little in the way of extraordinary casualties.
Today, the pocket calculator is a dying product, a casualty of digitization, which has been relegated to the role of a graphic icon on phone and computer screens rather than an object in its own right, but back in the early 1970s, it was at the forefront of consumer technology.
Word Forms
- casualties
- casuality
Synonyms for casualty
Depending on context, synonyms include fortune, luck, emergency, ER.
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include accident, victim, toll, lost, victimization, loss.
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.