Meaning & use
tragedy
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
A terrible event that causes great sorrow, usually involving death, serious suffering or a heavy loss.
Grammar: Counted for a particular event (a tragedy); uncountable for the general idea of suffering.
Patterns
- a tragedy for someone
- the tragedy of something
The flood was a tragedy for the whole village.
He never recovered from the tragedy of losing his brother so young.
It would be a tragedy if the old library were torn down.
nouncountable or uncountable
A serious play, film or story in which the main character suffers and usually dies, often because of a flaw or bad fortune.
Grammar: Counted for a work (a Greek tragedy); uncountable for the genre.
Patterns
- a tragedy by someone
We studied a Greek tragedy in drama class.
Shakespeare wrote both comedy and tragedy.
The opera is a classic tragedy about doomed lovers.
nounsingularinformal
A sad or unlucky situation that is not truly deadly but is a great pity.
Grammar: Often used with exaggeration: it's a tragedy that...
Patterns
- it is a tragedy that
- what a tragedy
It's a tragedy that such a talented player never got a chance.
Wasting that much food is a tragedy.
What a tragedy that the garden was ruined by frost.
Word forms
| plural | tragedies |
|---|
Common combinations
- a terrible tragedy
- The fire was a terrible tragedy for the town.
- avert a tragedy
- Quick action by the lifeguard averted a tragedy.
- Greek tragedy
- The play follows the pattern of a Greek tragedy.
- personal tragedy
- She suffered a personal tragedy last winter.
- a tragedy waiting to happen
- The unlit crossing was a tragedy waiting to happen.
- human tragedy
- The famine was a huge human tragedy.
Synonyms and how they differ
- disaster
- Disaster often describes a large event or failure, including trivial ones, whereas tragedy emphasizes sorrow and loss.
- catastrophe
- Catastrophe stresses huge scale and destruction, while tragedy stresses the sadness.
- calamity
- Calamity is a more formal word for a sudden serious misfortune and puts less weight on emotion.
- misfortune
- Misfortune is milder and covers bad luck of any size, while tragedy implies serious grief.
Opposites
Word family
- tragic adjective
- causing great sadness, or relating to tragedy
- tragically adverb
- in a sad or unfortunate way
- tragedian noun
- a writer or actor of tragedy
- tragicomedy noun
- a work mixing sad and funny elements
Commonly confused: tragedy or travesty?
tragedy vs travesty
A travesty is a ridiculous or insulting imitation or failure, such as of justice, while a tragedy is a sad event.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'tragedy' in the literary sense?
Choose one answer.
Only the Hamlet sentence refers to tragedy as a type of play. The others use it for real events or as exaggeration.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “tragedy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.