traumatic

[ truh-mat-ik, traw-, trou- ]

adjective

1. of, relating to, or produced by a trauma or wound.
2. adapted to the cure of wounds.
3. psychologically painful.

Other Words From

• trau·mati·cal·ly adverb
• untrau·matic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of traumatic¹

First recorded in 1650–60; from Late Latin traumaticus, from Greek traumatikós “pertaining to wounds,” from traumat- (stem of traûma trauma ) + -ikos -ic

Example Sentences

Garcia, who has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression, learned earlier this year that MTS denied her application for a discounted fare.

From Voice of San Diego

In the middle of an ongoing traumatic event, it’s often difficult to remember that things won’t always be as they are.

From Washington Blade

Psychologists and environmental scholars are creating a whole new vocabulary to describe these feelings of despair, including solastalgia, climate anxiety, eco-grief, pre-traumatic stress, and psychoterratic illness.

From Fortune

As the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Sean Reed and countless others seem to be compounded together for traumatic consumption all at once, there is an outcry like never before for the reforms Orlins has long championed.

From Ozy

Well, if they’re right, then now we have a target to either erase those traumatic memories, or—potentially—enhance the memories of happy times so they last longer.

From Singularity Hub 

If you think divorce between two people is messy and traumatic, imagine divorcing yourself.

From The Daily Beast

I am only able to ignore because I have had to have these conversations in person and that is the most traumatic experience.

From The Daily Beast

It is often the least visible but sometimes deadliest of injuries: traumatic brain injury (TBI).

From The Daily Beast

She recalls a particularly traumatic conversation with a HBO executive soon after the plug was pulled on The Comeback.

From The Daily Beast

I might be the first person ever diagnosed with, “PTED” – Post-Traumatic Election Ad Disorder.

From The Daily Beast

It is also suitable for cases of traumatic and paralytic origin.

From Project Gutenberg

The traumatic form is excessively obstinate and intractable.

From Project Gutenberg

He considers ringbone as articular, periarticular, rachitic and traumatic.

From Project Gutenberg

This is termed phlegmonous erysipelas, and is much more apt to occur in connexion with the traumatic variety of the disease.

From Project Gutenberg

The fact, however, that traumatic causes are detailed in other works on the same subject compels us to give them mention here.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• awful
• chilling
• disquieting
• dreadful
• eerie
• ghastly
• grim
• grisly
• hair-raising
• hellish
• horrible
• horrid
• horrifying
• macabre
• scary
• spooky
• terrible
• terrifying