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

They circulated inflated casualty figures in an open letter to Pope John Paul II and others.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

This summer’s Northern Hemisphere heat wave has been a mass casualty event, on a par with the recent earthquakes in Venezuela.

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

Former Arsenal midfielder and Wales captain Aaron Ramsey applies a tourniquet, while ex-Chelsea and Argentina goalkeeper Willy Caballero comforts the casualty.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

A word bravely soldiers on for years, until one day it falls facedown in the trenches, its original meaning a casualty of misuse.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

"A total of 80 homes have burnt, around 50 of which have been completely destroyed," he said, adding that there had been no casualties reported so far.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

As of Friday evening it was not clear whether there had been casualties.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

Civilian casualties in Ukraine have risen significantly since the indictment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The total number of U.S. deaths since the war began in February now stands at 18, alongside nearly a hundred casualties, per reporting from the New York Times.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

These limited results had cost 150,000 British casualties.

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

Related Words

• blow
• calamity
• catastrophe
• disaster
• mishap