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

Whilst most of the plants were saved in the process of moving, there was one major casualty - the Sabal palm tree which was over 200 years old.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 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

The demolition has begun at Bengaluru's Urvashi Cinema, once a 1,200-seat movie palace where generations of filmgoers cheered and whistled, another casualty of India's vanishing single-screen era.

From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026

A sign by a glass door says casualty dept.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston

According to the UN, the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine jumped by 55%, external in the first eight months of this year.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026

There were no reports yet of casualties but extensive damage was expected, particularly in the center of the Central American nation.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

No casualties were reported aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

The larger context: The U.S. government was trying to end World War II without invading Japan, which could have meant millions of casualties.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

But we are mighty lucky all the same, all the other squads have had more casualties than we have.

From "All Quiet on the Western Front: A Novel" by Erich Maria Remarque

Related Words

• blow
• calamity
• catastrophe
• disaster
• mishap