ENGLISH
REFERENCE

casualties

n. countable
B2 Upper Intermediate US //ˈkæʒəɫtiz// UK //kˈæʒuːəltɪz// ca·su·al·ties

n. people who are killed or injured in a war or a serious accident. You use this word when talking about the total number of victims in a disaster.

n. persons killed or injured in a war, accident, or other catastrophic event. Often used in the plural to refer to the aggregate human cost of a conflict or disaster.


SIMPLE

The news reported that there were no casualties in the fire.

CONTEXTUAL

Emergency services worked through the night to treat casualties and transport the most seriously injured to the hospital.

COMPLEX

Military historians often debate the official number of casualties, as records from that era frequently conflated those killed in action with those who died of disease.

Synonyms
Usage

Almost always used in the plural form when referring to groups of people; the singular 'casualty' refers to one specific victim.

Pitfall

The earthquake caused many damages and casualties.The earthquake caused much damage and many casualties.Learners often treat 'damage' as countable and 'casualties' as uncountable; 'casualties' is a countable noun and requires 'many'.

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