trag·e·dy

(trăj′ĭ-dē)

n. pl. trag·e·dies

a. A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances.

b. The genre made up of such works.

c. The art or theory of writing or producing these works.

2. A play, film, television program, or other narrative work that portrays or depicts calamitous events and has an unhappy but meaningful ending.

3. A disastrous event, especially one involving distressing loss or injury to life: an expedition that ended in tragedy, with all hands lost at sea.

4. A tragic aspect or element.

[Middle English tragedie, from Old French, from Latin tragoedia, from Greek tragōidiā : tragos, goat; see tragic + aoidē, ōidē, song; see wed-² in the Appendix of Indo-European roots and (Greek tragedy probably being so called because it developed from a ritual or festival procession involving a goat as the sacrifice or the prize for the composition of a song, or perhaps because festival participants wore animal masks and skins, including those of goats).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tragedy

(ˈtrædʒɪdɪ)

n, pl -dies

1. (Theatre) (esp in classical and Renaissance drama) a play in which the protagonist, usually a man of importance and outstanding personal qualities, falls to disaster through the combination of a personal failing and circumstances with which he cannot deal

2. (Theatre) (in later drama, such as that of Ibsen) a play in which the protagonist is overcome by a combination of social and psychological circumstances

3. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) any dramatic or literary composition dealing with serious or sombre themes and ending with disaster

4. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) (in medieval literature) a literary work in which a great person falls from prosperity to disaster, often through no fault of his own

5. (Theatre) the branch of drama dealing with such themes

6. the unfortunate aspect of something

7. a shocking or sad event; disaster

[C14: from Old French tragédie, from Latin tragoedia, from Greek tragōidia, from tragos goat + ōidē song; perhaps a reference to the goat-satyrs of Peloponnesian plays]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

trag•e•dy

(ˈtrædʒ ɪ di)

n., pl. -dies.

1. a lamentable, dreadful, or fatal event or affair; calamity; disaster: a family tragedy.

2. the tragic element of drama, of literature generally, or of life: the tragedy of poverty.

3. a literary composition, as a novel, dealing with a somber theme carried to a tragic conclusion.

4. a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically that of a great person destined through a flaw of character or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or society, to suffer downfall or destruction.

5. the branch of the drama that is concerned with this form of composition.

6. the art and theory of writing and producing tragedies.

[1325–75; Middle English tragedie < Medieval Latin tragēdia, Latin tragoedia < Greek tragōidía=trág(os) goat + ōidḗ song (see ode) + -ia -y³]

tragedy

A serious drama where the protagonist is overcome by social or psychological circumstances or personal failure.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	tragedy - an event resulting in great loss and misfortune; "the whole city was affected by the irremediable calamity"; "the earthquake was a disaster" calamity, catastrophe, disaster, cataclysm misfortune, bad luck - unnecessary and unforeseen trouble resulting from an unfortunate event act of God, force majeure, inevitable accident, unavoidable casualty, vis major - a natural and unavoidable catastrophe that interrupts the expected course of events; "he discovered that his house was not insured against acts of God" apocalypse - a cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil famine - a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death kiss of death - something that is ruinous; "if this were known it would be the kiss of death for my political career" meltdown - a disaster comparable to a nuclear meltdown; "there is little likelihood of a meltdown comparable to the American banking collapse in March 1933" plague - any large scale calamity (especially when thought to be sent by God) visitation - any disaster or catastrophe; "a visitation of the plague" tidal wave - an unusual (and often destructive) rise of water along the seashore caused by a storm or a combination of wind and high tide tsunami - a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption; "a colossal tsunami destroyed the Minoan civilization in minutes"
	2.	tragedy - drama in which the protagonist is overcome by some superior force or circumstance; excites terror or pity drama - the literary genre of works intended for the theater tragicomedy - a dramatic composition involving elements of both tragedy and comedy usually with the tragic predominating comedy - light and humorous drama with a happy ending

tragedy

noun

1. disaster, catastrophe, misfortune, adversity, calamity, affliction, whammy (informal, chiefly U.S.), bummer (slang), grievous blow They have suffered an enormous personal tragedy.
disaster success, fortune, joy, happiness, prosperity

2. tragic drama, play a classic Greek tragedy

Quotations
"Tragedy is clean, it is restful, it is flawless" [Jean Anouilh Antigone]
"Tragedy ought to be a great kick at misery" [D.H. Lawrence letter]
"All tragedies are finish'd by a death,"
"All comedies are ended by a marriage" [Lord Byron Don Juan]
"The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel" [Horace Walpole, Fourth Earl of Orford Letters]

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

tragedy

noun

An occurrence inflicting widespread destruction and distress:

calamity, cataclysm, catastrophe, disaster.

Translations

حادِث مأساوي، مأساهمَأْساةمأساة، رِوايَةٌ مأساوِيَّه

tragédie

tragedie

Tragödie

τραγωδία

tragedia

tragediamurhenäytelmä

tragédie

tragedija

tragédiadrámaszomorújáték

harmleikursorgaratburîur

tragedia tragicamente tragico attore tragico

悲惨な出来事

비극

tragedijatragiškas

traģēdija

tragédia

tragedija

tragedi

โศกนาฏกรรม

trajediağlatıfacia

tấn thảm kịch

悲剧不幸

tragedy

[ˈtrædʒɪdɪ] N (gen) (Theat) → tragedia f
it is a tragedy that → es una tragedia que ...
the tragedy of it is that → lo trágico del asunto es que ...
a personal tragedy → una tragedia personal

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

tragedy

[ˈtrædʒədi] n

(= tragic event) → tragédie f

(= play) → tragédie f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

tragedy

n (= tragic incident) → Tragödie f; (Theat also) → Trauerspiel nt; (no pl: = tragicness) → Tragische(s) nt; he often acts in tragedy → er tritt oft in Tragödien auf; six killed in bus crash tragedy → tragischer Busunfall forderte sechs Todesopfer; the tragedy of it is that … → das Tragische daran ist, dass …; it is a tragedy that … → es ist (wirklich) tragisch or ein Unglück, dass …

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

tragedy

[ˈtrædʒɪdɪ] n (gen) (Theatre) → tragedia
it is a tragedy that ... → è una vera disgrazia che...

tragedy

(ˈtrӕdʒədi) – plural ˈtragedies – noun

1. (a) drama about unfortunate events with a sad outcome. `Hamlet' is one of Shakespeare's tragedies.

2. an unfortunate or sad event. His early death was a great tragedy for his family.

ˈtragic adjective

1. sad; unfortunate. I heard of the tragic death of her son.

2. of tragedy or tragedies. a tragic hero.

tragedy

→ مَأْساة tragédie tragedie Tragödie τραγωδία tragedia tragedia tragédie tragedija tragedia 悲惨な出来事 비극 tragedie tragedie tragedia tragédia трагедия tragedi โศกนาฏกรรม trajedi tấn thảm kịch 悲剧

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

A tragedy is a play which shows the sad side of life and which has a mournful ending.

Our first real tragedy was not written until ten years after our first comedy.

View in context

THE INFLUENCE OF CLASSICAL COMEDY AND TRAGEDY. In Chapter IV we left the drama at that point, toward the middle of the sixteenth century, when the Mystery Plays had largely declined and Moralities and Interlude-Farces, themselves decadent, were sharing in rather confused rivalry that degree of popular interest which remained unabsorbed by the religious, political, and social ferment.

Their chief models for tragedy were the plays of the first-century Roman Seneca, who may or may not have been identical with the philosopher who was the tutor of the Emperor Nero.

View in context

Epic poetry and Tragedy, Comedy also and Dithyrambic: poetry, and the music of the flute and of the lyre in most of their forms, are all in their general conception modes of imitation.

Such are Dithyrambic and Nomic poetry, and also Tragedy and Comedy; but between them the difference is, that in the first two cases these means are all employed in combination, in the latter, now one means is employed, now another.

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There were, in fact, so many things to be attended to, so many people to be pleased, so many best characters required, and, above all, such a need that the play should be at once both tragedy and comedy, that there did seem as little chance of a decision as anything pursued by youth and zeal could hold out.

Though Julia fancies she prefers tragedy, I would not trust her in it.

View in context

When the place couldn't hold no more, the duke he quit tending door and went around the back way and come on to the stage and stood up before the curtain and made a little speech, and praised up this tragedy, and said it was the most thrillingest one that ever was; and so he went on a- bragging about the tragedy, and about Edmund Kean the Elder, which was to play the main principal part in it; and at last when he'd got everybody's expecta- tions up high enough, he rolled up the curtain, and the next minute the king come a-prancing out on all fours, naked; and he was painted all over, ring- streaked-and-striped, all sorts of colors, as splendid as a rainbow.

Then the duke he lets the curtain down, and bows to the people, and says the great tragedy will be per- formed only two nights more, on accounts of pressing London engagements, where the seats is all sold already for it in Drury Lane; and then he makes them another bow, and says if he has succeeded in pleasing them and instructing them, he will be deeply obleeged if they will mention it to their friends and get them to come and see it.

View in context

"If you care for my profession of faith as regards that, I'll tell you that I don't believe there was any tragedy about it.

View in context

As for Pierre Gringoire, he succeeded in saving the goat, and he won success in tragedy. It appears that, after having tasted astrology, philosophy, architecture, hermetics,--all vanities, he returned to tragedy, vainest pursuit of all.

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