Meaning & use
traumatising
Last updated
“traumatising” is a form of “traumatise”.
Meanings
adjectivecomparableBritish
Very shocking or distressing in a way that can cause lasting emotional damage.
Grammar: Used before or after a noun: a traumatising event; the experience was traumatising.
Patterns
- a traumatising experience
- find something traumatising
Losing their home in the flood was a traumatising experience for the family.
Many soldiers found the war traumatising.
The accident was so traumatising that she avoided driving for months.
verbtransitiveBritishmedical
Causing someone severe emotional shock that can leave lasting psychological harm.
Grammar: -ing form of traumatise; takes an object: traumatising a child.
Patterns
- traumatising someone
- risk traumatising someone
The film risks traumatising young viewers.
He feared that talking about it would be traumatising her again.
Repeated bullying was traumatising the boy.
adjectivecomparableinformalhumorous
Quite unpleasant or embarrassing, used humorously to exaggerate an ordinary bad experience.
Grammar: Informal exaggeration, not for real trauma.
Patterns
- pretty traumatising
Watching my dad dance at the wedding was traumatising.
Missing the last train was traumatising, but I got home by taxi.
That spider in the bath was traumatising.
Word forms
| base form | traumatise |
|---|---|
| third person | traumatises |
| past | traumatised |
Common combinations
- deeply traumatising
- The loss was deeply traumatising for the whole village.
- traumatising experience
- A traumatising experience in childhood can last for years.
- find it traumatising
- Some patients find the treatment traumatising.
- risk traumatising
- The documentary risks traumatising anyone who has been through war.
Synonyms and how they differ
- distressing
- Distressing is milder and just means upsetting, while traumatising suggests lasting emotional damage.
- harrowing
- Harrowing describes an experience that is extremely painful to see or live through, though not necessarily psychological injury.
- scarring
- Scarring suggests a lasting mark on a person, usually in a figurative sense, and is less clinical than traumatising.
Opposites
Word family
- trauma noun
- a deeply distressing experience or the harm it causes
- traumatise verb
- to cause trauma
- traumatised adjective
- suffering from trauma
- traumatic adjective
- causing trauma
- traumatizing adjective
- American spelling
Commonly confused: traumatising or traumatic?
traumatising vs traumatic
Traumatic describes the event itself and is the more common formal word, while traumatising often describes the effect on a person.
Practice
Which sentence uses traumatising in a serious sense?
Choose one answer.
Surviving an earthquake can cause real, lasting distress. The other options are playful exaggerations of everyday annoyances.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “traumatising”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.