# tragedy

Pronunciation: say "TRAJ-uh-dee" /ˈtɹæd͡ʒɛdi/

## Noun

1. A disastrous event, especially one that causes great loss of life or serious injury.
   - Simple: A terrible event that causes great suffering, death, or destruction.
   - _The earthquake was a tragedy that claimed thousands of lives._
   - _Investigators worked to understand how such a tragedy could have been prevented._
2. A drama in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme consequences because of a tragic flaw or weakness of character.
   - Simple: A play or story in which the main character is destroyed by a serious mistake or weakness.
   - _Shakespeare's Othello is a tragedy driven by jealousy and misplaced trust._
   - _The novel reads like a classic tragedy, with the protagonist's ambition leading to his downfall._
3. The genre of plays and works in which the main character comes to ruin, together with the art of producing them.
   - Simple: The kind of serious plays and stories that end sadly, and the skill of writing them.
   - _Greek tragedy reached its height in the works of Sophocles and Euripides._
   - _She devoted her career to writing tragedy for the modern stage._

## Origin

It comes through Middle English, Old French, and Latin from the Ancient Greek τραγῳδία (tragōidía, "tragedy"), made from τράγος (trágos, "male goat") plus ᾠδή (ōidḗ, "song"). This may refer to the goat-satyrs of Dorian theater, or, per Beekes, possibly to a goat given as a prize, but the origin remains uncertain.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/tragedy (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).