casualty

American  

[kazh-oo-uhl-tee] / ˈkæʒ u əl ti /

noun

• casualties
  plural

1. Military.

   1. a member of the armed forces lost to service through death, wounds, sickness, capture, or because their whereabouts or condition cannot be determined.

   2. casualties, loss in numerical strength through any cause, as death, wounds, sickness, capture, or desertion.

2. one who is injured or killed in an accident.

   There were no casualties in the traffic accident.

3. any person, group, thing, etc., that is harmed or destroyed as a result of some act or event.

   Their house was a casualty of the fire.

4. a serious accident, especially one involving bodily injury or death.

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casualty British  

/ ˈkæʒjʊəltɪ /

noun

1. a serviceman who is killed, wounded, captured, or missing as a result of enemy action

2. a person who is injured or killed in an accident

3. a hospital department in which victims of accidents, violence, etc, are treated

4. anything that is lost, damaged, or destroyed as the result of an accident, etc

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• casualties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of casualty

First recorded in 1375–1425; casual + -ty ²; replacing late Middle English casuelte, equivalent to casuel ( casual ) + -te -ty ²

Explanation

In wartime, you'll hear the word casualty used often for someone killed or injured. But casualty can also refer to deaths or injuries suffered in an accident or some other unfortunate event. The term "casualties of war" has been around for a while and refers to the ugly downside of military victory. Anyone who loses life or limb, either in the fighting or as a civilian, is called a casualty. You can also use this word figuratively: if a local elementary school loses funding for their art classes and after-school activities, you can say that the students are casualties of budget cuts.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

casualty casualties

The financial-services industry is another casualty of investors’ Muse-fears.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 8, 2026

And so at the Humanoid Games, when one robot sprinter reacted to the starting gun by sitting down, then lying on its back and gazing at the sky, viewers saw a fellow casualty of burnout.

From Slate ● Sep. 27, 2026

Another casualty who was outside the property in Stone Square in Bootle, Sefton, when fire crews arrived during the early hours of Tuesday was taken to hospital.

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

For entertainment journalists who watch everything, spoiling surprises is a casualty of the job.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

The results probably gratified the farmers, for the casualty list included some 65,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

It said initial reports suggested most of the casualties were women and children.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked Panama on Friday, unleashing panic in the high-rise capital city and causing buildings to collapse in the center of the country but produced no immediate reports of casualties.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Used as an estimation of casualties — just put a number in front, “20 NAZA”— it suggests a battle calculation that has permitted the detachment of moral consquences.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

No casualties or environmental impact were reported at the time.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Total casualties on both sides were around a half million.

From "The War to End All Wars: World War I" by Russell Freedman

Related Words

• blow
• calamity
• catastrophe
• disaster
• mishap