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casualties - 2 dictionary results
Deaths
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cas⋅u⋅al⋅ty

  [kazh-oo-uhl-tee]
Use casualties in a Sentence
–noun, plural -ties.
1. Military.
a. a member of the armed forces lost to service through death, wounds, sickness, capture, or because his or her whereabouts or condition cannot be determined.
b. 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, esp. one involving bodily injury or death.
Origin:
1375–1425; casual + -ty 2 ; r. late ME casuelte, equiv. to casuel (see casual ) + -te -ty 2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ca·su·al·ty   (kāzh'ōō-əl-tē)   
n.   pl. ca·su·al·ties
  1. An accident, especially one involving serious injury or loss of life.
  2. One injured or killed in an accident: a train wreck with many casualties.
  3. One injured, killed, captured, or missing in action through engagement with an enemy. Often used in the plural: Battlefield casualties were high.
  4. One that is harmed or eliminated as a result of an action or a circumstance: The corner grocery was a casualty of the expanding supermarkets.

[Middle English casuelte, from Old French, from Medieval Latin cāsuālitās, chance, accident, from Latin cāsuālis, fortuitous; see casual.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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