Trauma

//ˈtɹɔ.mə// noun

noun ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Any serious injury to the body, often resulting from violence or an accident. countable, uncountable

    "Repeated trauma or shaking to the brain can be even worse, leading to chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE."

  2. 2
    an emotional wound or shock often having long-lasting effects wordnet
  3. 3
    An emotional wound leading to psychological injury. countable, uncountable

    "Jailing her on Wednesday, magistrate Liz Clyne told Robins: "You have shown little remorse either for the death of the kitten or the trauma to your former friend Sarah Knutton." She was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years."

  4. 4
    any physical damage to the body caused by violence or accident or fracture etc.; the condition of an injury wordnet
  5. 5
    An event that causes great distress. countable, uncountable

Example

More examples

"Sexual abuse victims often disassociate from their trauma."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek τραῦμα (traûma, “wound, damage”).

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.