casualty
Americannoun
plural
casualties-
Military.
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a member of the armed forces lost to service through death, wounds, sickness, capture, or because their whereabouts or condition cannot be determined.
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casualties, loss in numerical strength through any cause, as death, wounds, sickness, capture, or desertion.
-
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one who is injured or killed in an accident.
There were no casualties in the traffic accident.
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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.
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a serious accident, especially one involving bodily injury or death.
noun
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a serviceman who is killed, wounded, captured, or missing as a result of enemy action
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a person who is injured or killed in an accident
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a hospital department in which victims of accidents, violence, etc, are treated
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anything that is lost, damaged, or destroyed as the result of an accident, etc
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.
Vocabulary lists containing casualty
The Things They Carried
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The American Civil War
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A Long Way Gone
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Secret Service agents acted swiftly and captured the man without a casualty.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 26, 2026
The military said it was aware of the casualty reports and that Tuesday's incident was under review.
From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026
That they pulled it off without a single U.S. casualty is extraordinary.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 5, 2026
"Once checked over, the casualty was fitted with a confidence rope and then made an impressive 'hands free' descent of Tryfan," the post added.
From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026
The last casualty that we saw that evening was a woman who carried her baby on her back.
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
