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# tragic

«tragic» in Mova's school dictionary: **very sad, usually because someone has died or suffered…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

adjective (tragic, more tragic, most tragic)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Tragic means very sad, usually because someone has died or suffered something terrible. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#m1)

2) In literature, tragic means to do with a tragedy, a serious play or story that ends in disaster for the main character. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#m2)

3) (informal, slang) Tragic can mean embarrassingly bad: "His dancing is tragic." [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In news and history it describes accidents, wars and disasters. In English lessons it names a kind of story or hero. In playground talk it can be a jokey insult. Phrases: a tragic accident, tragic news, tragic hero, a tragic ending.

### examples

- The ship sank in a tragic accident. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#x1)
- It is tragic that so many animals lose their homes in fires. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#x2)
- The story has a tragic ending. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#x3)
- The tragic hero makes one big mistake that ruins him. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#x4)
- (slang) "That haircut is tragic," my brother joked. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#x5)
- We heard the tragic news on the radio. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#x6)
- She let her hands play in the hair of the tragic boy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/#x7)

### note

Adverb: tragically. Noun: tragedy. The slang sense is jokey and can sound unkind. Do not use "tragic" for small problems in formal writing.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «tragic» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tragic/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.