different between fact vs casualty

English

Etymology

From Latin factum (“a deed, act, exploit; in Medieval Latin also state, condition, circumstance”), neuter of factus (“done or made”), perfect passive participle of faci? (“do, make”). Doublet of feat.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fækt/
• Rhymes: -ækt

Noun

fact (countable and uncountable, plural facts)

1. Something actual as opposed to invented.
2. Something which is real.

   Gravity is a fact, not a theory.

3. Something concrete used as a basis for further interpretation.

4. An objective consensus on a fundamental reality that has been agreed upon by a substantial number of experts.

5. Information about a particular subject, especially actual conditions and/or circumstances.

6. (databases) An individual value or measurement at the lowest level of granularity in a data warehouse.
7. (archaic) Action; the realm of action.
8. (law, obsolete except in set phrases) A wrongful or criminal deed.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ix:

     She was empassiond at that piteous act, / With zelous enuy of Greekes cruell fact, / Against that nation [...].

9. (obsolete) A feat or meritorious deed.

Antonyms

• (Something actual): fiction

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• value
• opinion
• belief

References

• fact at OneLook Dictionary Search
• fact in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fact in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "Conway: 'Alternative Facts'" Merriam-Webster's Trend Watch Merriam-Webster. 2017.

Interjection

fact

1. Used before making a statement to introduce it as a trustworthy one.

Anagrams

• acft

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.