adjective
traumatic
truh-MAT-ik/trəˈmætɪk/
Causing severe physical or emotional harm.
The shaken survivor finds the crash deeply traumatic.
Etymology
Originally describing physical wounds, traumatic came to describe emotional shocks understood as wounds to the mind. This psychological use underlies its meaning of deeply distressing or emotionally damaging.
In context
armed robbery is one of the most traumatic offenses that could happen to a person there's not one armed robbery victim that I'm aware of in my 21 years in policing that hasn't been quite severely affected
More examples
- The event was traumatic for the family.
- The report describes a traumatic injury.
- They discussed the long effects of traumatic experiences.
Forms
traumatic
Similar words
- distressing
- Distressing need not imply severe or lasting harm.
- devastating
- Devastating emphasizes overwhelming impact rather than the specific idea of trauma.