collateral damage

noun

Definition of collateral damagenext
as in fatality

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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 collateral damage Chaotic bodycam footage from some of the incidents shows the collateral damage when bystanders are caught in the crossfire. — Laura Geller, CBS News, 13 July 2026 The closest planetary neighbors—Mercury, Venus, and possibly even Earth—will be destroyed in the resultant collateral damage. — Andrew Paul, Popular Science, 1 July 2026 All of that increases the likelihood for collateral damage. — Doug Turnbull, AJC.com, 28 June 2026 Unfortunately, there’s always collateral damage from these abuse cases. — Denise Crosby, Chicago Tribune, 28 June 2026 See All Example Sentences for collateral damage
Recent Examples of Synonyms for collateral damage
  1. fatality
  2. sacrifice
  3. victim
  4. casualty
  5. prey
  6. loss
  7. martyr
Noun
  • The most recent fatality was on July 11, when a 64-year-old Greek hiker died after collapsing on a trail.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 18 July 2026
  • The eighth fatality was at a similar center in Elektrostal in the Moscow region.
    — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 18 July 2026
Definition of fatality
Noun
  • Thiel is a serious intellectual shaped by René Girard, his mentor at Stanford, whose mimetic theory of violence and sacrifice underpins much of how Thiel sees the world.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 18 July 2026
  • For some, evoking death and sacrifice was perplexing and distasteful; a step too far.
    — Harry Booth, Time, 17 July 2026
Definition of sacrifice
Noun
  • Jones said Velasquez and the victim were close friends and lived just a few miles apart.
    — Harriet Ramos, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 July 2026
  • Patel arrived in Jakarta shortly after talks with Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet concerning joint efforts to combat international online scam operations that cheat victims out of billions of dollars annually.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 23 July 2026
Definition of victim
Noun
  • If outmoded office buildings end up becoming once again viable as office buildings, Berman’s thesis could end up becoming a casualty of its own transformational success.
    — Andrew Rice, Curbed, 23 July 2026
  • That was part of his wider goal of sending endless waves of bomb-carrying drones and robots to hit Russian encampments in a bid to sharply reduce Ukraine’s casualties.
    — Kevin Holden Platt, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
Definition of casualty
Noun
  • But could these large marine mammals also play with their prey just for fun?
    — Matthew Glasser, ABC News, 23 July 2026
  • Orcas are known to play with their food—passing dying prey around to one another, for example, like a macabre game of hot potato.
    — Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Scientific American, 23 July 2026
Definition of prey
Noun
  • The central message is the acceptance that suffering is a necessary stage in the process of love, loss and personal growth — of life itself.
    — Colin Millar, New York Times, 19 July 2026
  • The Marlins, whose fifth straight loss matched their season high, closed the gap to 8-6 in the ninth inning thanks to Griffin Conine’s three-run homer, his seventh, off Craig Yoho.
    — Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 19 July 2026
Definition of loss
Noun
  • The story contrasts past, more restrained immigration enforcement with today’s shootings, urging that Salgado Araujo be remembered as a modern-day martyr of the American dream and immigrants’ increasingly precarious lives.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 14 July 2026
  • In between Amos’s lines, In Times of Dragons is a saga of survival introducing different muses along the way, from a real-life ancestor, a martyr who fell in love with Jesus, and a group of rugged women.
    — Tina Eves, SPIN, 13 July 2026
Definition of martyr

Browse Nearby Words

collateral
collateral damage
collateral damages
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Cite this Entry

“Collateral damage.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/collateral%20damage. Accessed 26 Jul. 2026.

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