A casualty refers to a person who is killed or injured in an accident, disaster, or war. When a news report mentions “casualties from the earthquake,” it means people who were hurt or died. Military reports track casualties to understand the human cost of battles.

In World War II, millions of soldiers and civilians became casualties. After a major hurricane, rescue workers count casualties to understand how many people need help or have been lost.

You'll also hear casualty used more broadly to mean something that gets damaged or destroyed because of a larger event. If a store closes because a new highway took away its customers, people might say the business was a casualty of progress. When budget cuts force a school to cancel its music program, the program becomes a casualty of those cuts.

The word carries weight because it represents real people and real loss. Unlike statistics or numbers, casualty reminds us that behind every count is an individual person or thing that mattered.