different between casualty vs coincidence

English

Etymology

From casual, from Middle French casuel, from Medieval Latin casualitas and Late Latin c?su?lis (“happening by chance”), from Latin c?sus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”). Originally meaning “a chance event” (compare casual, as in “casual encounter”), it developed a negative meaning as “an unfortunate event”, especially the loss of a person.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ka?(?)?lti/

Noun

casualty (countable and uncountable, plural casualties)

1. Something that happens by chance, especially an unfortunate event; an accident, a disaster.
   • 1756, Samuel Johnson, “The Life of Sir Thomas Browne” in Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, p. xx,^[1]

     The course of his education was like that of others, such as put him little in the way of extraordinary casualties.

2. A person suffering from injuries or who has been killed due to an accident or through an act of violence.
3. (proscribed) Specifically, a person who has been killed (not only injured) due to an accident or through an act of violence; a fatality.
4. (military) A person in military service who becomes unavailable for duty, for any reason (notably death, injury, illness, capture, or desertion).
5. (Britain) The accident and emergency department of a hospital.
6. An incidental charge or payment.
7. Someone or something adversely affected by a decision, event or situation.
8. (obsolete) Chance nature; randomness.
   • , NYRB 2001, vol.1, p.327-8:

     The non-necessary [causes] follow; of which, saith Fuchsius, no art can be made, by reason of their uncertainty, casualty, and multitude […]

Usage notes

The term casualty is sometimes used to mean “a killed person”; in more careful use this is referred to as a fatality, and casualty instead means “killed or injured”.

Synonyms

• (something that happens by chance): fortune, luck; see also Thesaurus:luck
• (hospital's accident and emergency):
  • emergency / emergency room / emergency department / emergency ward / E. R./E.R./ER
  • casualty department / casualty ward
  • accident and emergency / A&E

Hyponyms

• fatality

Derived terms

• casualty department
• casualty event
• casualty ward

Related terms

• casual

Translations

References

• “casualty”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

English

Alternative forms

• coïncidence (uncommon)
• coincidency (dated)

Etymology

From French coïncidence.

Morphologically coincide +? -ence.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k????ns?d?ns/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ko???ns?d?ns/, /k??w?ns?d?ns/

Noun

coincidence (countable and uncountable, plural coincidences)

1. Of objects, the property of being coincident; occurring at the same time or place.
2. Of events, the appearance of a meaningful connection when there is none.
3. (mathematical analysis) A coincidence point.
4. (geometry) A fixed point of a correspondence; a point of a variety corresponding to itself under a correspondence.

Synonyms

• (of objects and time): concurrentness, synchronicity; see also Thesaurus:simultaneousness
• (in analysis): coincidence point

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations