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

She didn’t know it yet, but all that was left of her camper was its frame; it’s burned, twisted metal was another casualty of the L.A. wildfires.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

But in the past half century of mergers and consolidations, it was briefly a casualty, shuttering in 1985.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026

Whatever the specific causes of death, this was a mass casualty event, on par with the earthquakes that hit Venezuela a few weeks ago.

From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026

The conflict with Iran cut off a key transit route for oil supplies and ignited a new wave of global inflation, but the U.S. economy avoided becoming a major casualty.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026

A sign by a glass door says casualty dept.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

A “low-key” campaign will mitigate the threat of dwindling supplies and high casualties, without necessarily providing Trump with a path to victory, said Stephen Biddle, a professor of international and public policy at Columbia University.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026

"There is no serious structural damage, no serious material damage and there are no casualties," said Sanz, who specified that "the Alhambra had not been affected in any way".

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

But officials confirmed no casualties or serious damage, notably to the southern city's Alhambra palace, a UNESCO-listed jewel of medieval Islamic architecture and the seat of Spain's last Muslim kingdom.

From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026

Police have since said none of the casualties had life-threatening injuries.

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

Still, the White House announced that the enemy offensive was running out of steam, that casualties at Khesanh were light, that we would never give up the marine base there.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt

Related Words

• blow
• calamity
• catastrophe
• disaster
• mishap