Macmillan Dictionary

Did you know?

Click any word in a definition or example to find the entry for that word

tragic

 - definition
 
 
Close

What are red words?

90% of the time, speakers of English use just 7,500 words in speech and writing. These words appear in red, and are graded with stars. One-star words are frequent, two-star words are more frequent, and three-star words are the most frequent.

Close

Thesaurus

The thesaurus of synonyms and related words is fully integrated into the dictionary entries. Click on the T button in an entry to review the synonyms and related words for that meaning.

more
adjective British English pronunciation: tragic /ˈtrædʒɪk/
  1. 1
    causing or involving great sadness, because someone suffers or dies

    War is a tragic waste of human life.

    a tragic death/accident:

    The couple never got over the tragic death of their son.

    Thesaurus entry for this meaning of tragic
    1. a.
      British informal very bad and making you feel upset or angry

      It's simply tragic that we lost the game.

      Thesaurus entry for this meaning of tragic

derived word

tragically

 British English pronunciation: tragically /ˈtrædʒɪkli/  adverb

Irwin tragically committed suicide at the age of 29.

This is the British English definition of tragic. View American English definition of tragic.

Change your default dictionary and thesaurus to American English.

 

charticle

a news article that consists of a chart … and only has a small amount of text

BuzzWord Article

Word of the Day

proton

the part of the nucleus of an atom that has a positive electrical charge

Open Dictionary

never event

an event that should never occur in a healthcare setting …

add a word

Blog

A must for anyone with an interest in the changing face of language. The Macmillan Dictionary blog explores English as it is spoken around the world today.

global English and language change from our blog