tragic
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Related to an event resulting in great loss and misfortune.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
trajikSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɹædʒɪk
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Causing great sadness or suffering.
Of or relating to or characteristic of tragedy
in tabloid newspapers
Having been the victim of a tragedy.
informalchiefly predicative
Cringeworthy; tryhard; unhip; embarrassing; hopeless; indicative of (or having) a chronic lack of self-awareness.
noun
Australiacolloquial
An obsessive fan, a superfan
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Causing great sadness or suffering.
Used this way, tragic is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It lands hard, so it overstates anything mild. It turns up most in personal or emotional discussion and literature or storytelling contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Very strong
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Strongly negative / painful
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Where it naturally appears
- Personal/emotional discussion
- Literature/storytelling
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use tragic
- “It was a tragic accident, and everyone felt very sad.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The character flaw or error of a tragic hero that leads to his downfall.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.