TRAGEDIES Synonyms: 74 Similar and Opposite Words

tragedies

noun

plural of tragedy

as in disasters

a sudden violent event that brings about great loss or destruction the earthquake and the ensuing damage was the worst tragedy to ever befall the city

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in misfortunes

bad luck or an example of this it's the tragedy of many great artists not to be recognized for their genius until after they're dead

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of tragedies By century’s end, however, the specter of famine had largely receded (aside from tragedies of war and misgovernment, no small caveat). — Literary Hub, 23 Oct. 2026 Investigators are still working to determine how Boahene was dragged by the train and ways to prevent similar tragedies. — Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 22 Oct. 2026 From war zones to tragedies like school shootings, parents across the globe grapple with the heartbreaking fear of separation from their children. — The Christian Science Monitor, Christian Science Monitor, 22 Oct. 2026 While the show is beloved, its legacy has also been marred with a series of tragedies and controversies, both on and off screen. — Saba Hamedy, NBC news, 21 Oct. 2026 Prime Minister Mark Carney called the blaze one of the worst peacetime tragedies to strike Canada's armed forces on home soil, according to Reuters. — Stephen Sorace , Sophia Compton, FOXNews.com, 18 Oct. 2026 Of those tragedies, 2,814 are homicides, 1,275 are suicides, and 144 are accidental shootings. — Lisa Milbrand, Parents, 16 Oct. 2026 What happened to Gates is one of several tragedies involving postal workers in extreme Texas heat in recent years. — Ginger Allen, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026 There’s a slickness to the carnage that rubs uncomfortably against the film’s humanist ethos, rendering artificial (for all Shen Teng’s trembling and mouth-contorting labors) the horrific tragedies that befall its characters. — Beatrice Loayza, Variety, 13 Oct. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for tragedies

Noun

Since 2024, the state and federal governments have spent over half a billion dollars on disasters in Ruidoso — nine times the village’s annual budget.

— Abe Streep, ProPublica, 21 Oct. 2026
These same companies continue to kill the clean energy that is not only cheaper, but try to side-step their glaring responsibility for the increasing cascade of climate disasters.

— Tom Tapp, Deadline, 21 Oct. 2026

Definition of disasters

Noun

Poliński said Zosia would likely have been blamed for misfortunes such as disease and famine that often plagued the region in the 17th century, which people sometimes attributed to supernatural activity by the dead.

— Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 21 Aug. 2026
But the fire this time was started by a son, which led to raging misfortunes that consumed his three brothers one by one, leaving only ashen memories for his surviving sister and aged parents to sift through.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Aug. 2026

Definition of misfortunes

Noun

The protagonist becomes a wise-guy version of Benjamin’s Angel of History, watching calamities accumulate before his eyes.

— Alex Ross, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
To avert future calamities, the forest outside Bordeaux must be thinned and its fire breaks widened, said Arthur Guérin-Turcq, a Sorbonne University geographer whose family cultivates pines near Le Porge.

— Michael Finnegan, Los Angeles Times, 30 Aug. 2026

Definition of calamities

Noun

There’s a lot of apocalypses happening now in this world, major ones.

— Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2026
And a lot of the pseudepigrapha, like the fake gospels and fake apocalypses, fill in gaps in the record that can serve latter-day, post-biblical purposes.

— JSTOR Daily, JSTOR Daily, 16 Oct. 2025

Definition of apocalypses

Browse Nearby Words

tragediennes

tragedies

tragedy

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Tragedies.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tragedies. Accessed 28 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of tragedies

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

grotesque

Popular in Grammar & Usage

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Popular in Wordplay

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'

'Za' and 9 Other Words to Help You Win at SCRABBLE

Popular

How to Use 'Who' vs. 'Whom'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Games & Quizzes