Tragic

How to spell tragic

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tragic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tragic mean?

1. adjectiveCausing or marked by great suffering, loss, or sorrow.

Tragic in a sentence

• The tragic accident closed the motorway for hours.

• News of the tragic fire shocked the whole town.

Where does tragic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word descends from the Greek tragikos, meaning 'of or relating to tragedy', which was built on tragoidia, the word for a serious dramatic performance. Curiously, tragoidia literally combines tragos, meaning 'goat', with oide, meaning 'song', so it once meant something like 'goat song', perhaps because a goat was offered as a prize or sacrificed at the dramatic contests of ancient Athens. The Greek term passed into Latin as tragicus and then into French as tragique before reaching English in the sixteenth century. At first it described the theatrical genre of tragedy, but the everyday sense soon broadened to mean any event marked by deep sorrow or disaster. The simple -ic ending keeps the spelling regular, which is why this word rarely catches adults out.

How the word is built

• trag- (from Greek tragos, goat, via tragoidia, tragedy)
• -ic (adjective suffix)