casualty
Americannoun
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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
Other Word Forms
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.
Investing in private funds, which are illiquid—meaning investors can’t cash out whenever they like—is a riskier proposition for property and casualty insurers than for firms that sell life policies and annuities.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 8, 2026
It said during a search of the area, BTP was called at about 09:40 BST to a casualty on the track near Welwyn North railway station.
From BBC • May 28, 2026
Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel responded to a call of a mass casualty event around 9:30 a.m.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
One casualty was a Texas plant built to make Craftsman-brand wrenches and ratchet sets that had been coming from China.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 6, 2026
As far as I knew, there’d only been the one in-town casualty the night before.
From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx
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.
