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

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Etymology

Origin of casualty

First recorded in 1375–1425; casual + -ty ²; replacing late Middle English casuelte, equivalent to casuel ( casual ) + -te -ty ²

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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

Travelers stock falls even as the property and casualty insurer reports better-than-expected earnings.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

Ironically, the property and casualty insurance industry could have seen returns boosted by a devastating hurricane.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

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

“My job was to ascertain if the casualty warranted the risk,” said Kelley.

From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge

After congratulating the crew on completing thousands of combat missions with “zero casualties, zero flight mishaps, and zero working toilets,” Jost’s Hegseth offered an update on developments back home.

From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2026

However, the full extent of the damage it has caused is not yet clear, nor whether there have been any casualties as a result.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

A magnitude 7.7 earthquake rocked Panama on Friday, unleashing panic in the high-rise capital city and causing buildings to collapse in the center of the country but produced no immediate reports of casualties.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 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 it was won at the cost of a million Russian casualties, a staggering loss from which the czar’s armies would never recover.

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

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Related Words

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