traumatic brain injury

noun

: an acquired brain injury caused by external force (such as a blow to the head sustained in a motor vehicle accident or fall or shrapnel or a bullet entering through the skull)

Traumatic brain injury occurs when the shock from an explosion damages neurological fibers. Soldiers may survive a blast with scarcely a cut, only to find over time that they suffer coordination and memory loss, dizziness, insomnia.

—Nancy Gibbs

An unprotected fall, especially if the player is unconscious or his opponent lands on top of him, can result in severe traumatic brain injury.

—Michael J. Stuart et al.

broadly : acquired brain injury

—abbreviation TBI

Examples of traumatic brain injury in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The video, which shows the athlete using ropes as part of physical therapy, was created in partnership with the ‘Kel Strong’ Foundation, a nonprofit that provides financial support to people impacted by traumatic brain injuries. —Sam Gillette, People.com, 24 Apr. 2025

The 59-year-old breast cancer survivor is now helping a psychologist who specializes in patients with traumatic brain injuries. —Michelle Marchante, Miami Herald, 11 Apr. 2025

Reason this physician needs to heal herself: Partial retrograde amnesia as a result of a traumatic brain injury that left a piece of skull permanently lodged in her brain. —Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 3 Apr. 2025

Or consider the sizable percentage of death row prisoners with histories of traumatic brain injury to their frontal cortex. —Jessica Riskin, The New York Review of Books, 3 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1931, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

traumatic brain injury

noun

: an acquired brain injury caused by external force (as a blow to the head sustained in a motor vehicle accident or fall or shrapnel or a bullet entering through the skull)

A soldier—or a civilian—can survive the blast without a single penetrating wound and still receive the worst diagnosis: traumatic brain injury, or TBI, the signature injury of the Iraq War.

—Michael Mason, Discover

An unprotected fall, especially if the player is unconscious or his opponent lands on top of him, can result in severe traumatic brain injury.

—Michael J. Stuart et al., USA Today

broadly : acquired brain injury

—abbreviation TBI