tragedy

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The atmosphere of real life present in English tragedy is absent in French.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun 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.
  2. noun The genre made up of such works.
  3. noun The art or theory of writing or producing these works.
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Examples (50)

  • Sorry to burst your bubble but the tragedy is all Americans don't read websites like this. —  Infowars
  • Smith warned: "It would now be a tragedy were the aid package not be delivered in time to avert the industrial consequences of another quarter like this last one." —  Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
  • And just when you think the tragedy is about to swallow you alive in doom, a spark of hope rescues the audience from suicidal depression. —  GreenCine Daily
  • It seems to me that a lot of Republican rhetoric would imply that feeling something for the tragedy is the province of conservatives only. —  Spanglemonkey
  • I did not know any of the victims, but I am very bothered that almost all I have read with regard to this tragedy is about Nick Ardenhart. —  Daily Titan RSS
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

drama ·  disaster ·  misery ·  horror ·  conflict ·  mystery ·  incident ·  misfortune ·  adventure ·  crime ·  comedy ·  tale

Used in the same contextWord Family

tragedy:   tragedies
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English tragedie, from Old French, from Latin tragoedia, from Greek tragōidiā : tragos, goat + aoidē, ōidē, song; see wed-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English tragedie, tragedye, from OF, tragedie, French tragėdie =Spanish Portuguese Italian tragedia, from Latin tragœdia, Middle Latin also tragedia, tragedy, a tragedy, lofty style, a great commotion or disturbance, from Greek τραγῳδία, a tragedy (see def.), serious poetry, an exaggerated speech, a melancholy event, from τραγῳδός, (later L. tragædus), a tragic actor or singer, literally ‘a goat-singer,’ from τράγος, a goat, he-goat (literally ‘nibbler,’ from τρώγειν, τραγεῖν, nibble). + ᾠδός, contr. of ἀοιδός, a singer (cf. ᾠδή, ἀοιδή, a song), from ἀείδειν, ἄδειν, sing (see ode), and same termination appears in comedy. The orig. reason of the name τραγῳδός, ‘goat-singer,’ is uncertain. (a) In one view, so called because a goat was the prize for the best performance. This would require τραγῳδός, to mean ‘singer for a goat,’ and would make the name for a distinctive character or act depend on a subsequent fact, namely, the goat given at the end of the performance to only one of the performers. (b) In another view, so called because a goat was sacrificed at the singing of the song—a goat as the spoiler of vines, if not on other accounts, being a fitting sacrifice at the feasts of Bacchus. But this again makes the name depend on a subsequent act, or an act not immediately concerned with the ‘goat-singer’—unless indeed the ‘goat-singer’ himself killed the goat, (c) It is much more probable that the τραγῳδός was literally ‘a goat-singer’ in the most literal sense, a singer or actor dressed in a goatskin, to personate a satyr, hence later ‘an actor in the satyric drama,’ from which tragedy in the later sense was developed. Whatever the exact origin of the termination the ult. reference was no doubt to the satyrs, the companions of Bacchus, the clowns of the original drama. Cf. τρυγῳδός, a comic actor, similarly named from his disguise, namely, from the lees with which his face was smeared (from τρύξ (τρυγ-), lees, + ᾠδός, singer).
 

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/ˈtrædʒɛdi/
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