Meaning & use
injury
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
Physical harm done to a person's or animal's body, often in an accident.
Grammar: Countable when talking about a specific case (a knee injury), uncountable when talking about harm in general (risk of injury).
Patterns
- a minor injury
- a serious injury
- suffer an injury
- an injury to something
She suffered a minor injury to her ankle during the game.
The driver escaped without injury.
He missed several matches because of a knee injury.
noununcountableformal
Damage to someone's feelings, reputation, or rights.
Grammar: Used in formal or legal contexts: injury to someone's reputation.
Patterns
- injury to something
- do someone an injury
The newspaper apologized for the injury to her reputation.
He claimed the remarks had caused him emotional injury.
Word forms
| plural | injuries |
|---|
Common combinations
- minor injury
- The cyclist walked away with only a minor injury.
- serious injury
- The crash caused serious injuries to two passengers.
- suffer an injury
- Players who suffer an injury must rest.
- injury time
- The team scored in injury time.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wound
- A wound is usually a cut or hole in the skin caused by a weapon or sharp object; an injury is any physical harm, including broken bones and sprains.
- harm
- Harm is a broader, often more formal word for damage; injury usually suggests a specific event that hurts the body.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: injury or insult? injury or injury?
injury vs insult
An insult is a rude or offensive remark; an injury is physical harm to the body.
injury vs injury
Spelling: injury has 'jur' in the middle, not 'jer'.
Practice
The player missed the final because of a ______ injury.
Choose one answer.
'Minor' is an adjective meaning not serious, so it fits before 'injury.' 'Minorly' is an adverb, 'minority' is a noun, and 'minored' is a verb form.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “injury”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.