Meaning & use
traumatic event
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
a very shocking and upsetting experience that can cause lasting emotional harm.
Grammar: Countable: use 'a traumatic event' or 'traumatic events'. It is not usually used with 'the' unless you mean a specific one already mentioned.
Patterns
- a traumatic event for someone
- experience a traumatic event
- suffer a traumatic event
- after a traumatic event
The accident was a traumatic event for everyone in the car.
Many soldiers return home after a traumatic event and need support.
Children can react differently to the same traumatic event.
nouncountabletechnical
in psychology, an event outside normal experience that overwhelms a person's ability to cope.
Grammar: Used in technical writing; often defined in a study or diagnosis.
Patterns
- exposure to a traumatic event
- criteria for a traumatic event
The study asked whether exposure to a traumatic event predicted later anxiety.
In the manual, a traumatic event must involve actual or threatened death or serious injury.
Word forms
| plural | traumatic events |
|---|
Common combinations
- experience a traumatic event
- She experienced a traumatic event during the war.
- after a traumatic event
- Many people need counseling after a traumatic event.
- a traumatic event for someone
- The divorce was a traumatic event for the whole family.
- survivor of a traumatic event
- He is a survivor of a traumatic event and now helps others.
- triggered by a traumatic event
- Her fear of driving was triggered by a traumatic event.
Synonyms and how they differ
- trauma
- More general and can also mean the injury or the emotional wound itself, not just the event.
- shock
- Focuses on the sudden, surprising nature; it does not necessarily suggest long-term harm.
- crisis
- Suggests a difficult period or turning point, often public or ongoing, rather than a single overwhelming event.
Word family
- trauma noun
- The event or the lasting emotional injury it causes.
- traumatic adjective
- Causing severe shock or distress.
- traumatize verb
- To cause someone to suffer lasting shock or distress.
- traumatized adjective
- Suffering from the effects of a traumatic event.
Commonly confused: traumatic event or dramatic event?
traumatic event vs dramatic event
Sounds similar but means an exciting or striking event, not a deeply upsetting one.
Practice
After the earthquake, many children needed help because they had lived through a ______.
Choose one answer.
'Traumatic event' is the correct fixed phrase for a shocking experience. 'Dramatic event' means an exciting one, 'traumatic person' is wrong because the adjective describes the event, and 'trauma event' is not the usual English phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “traumatic event”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.