as in horrible
causing great and lasting pain or distress
The family struggled to cope with the traumatic experience of losing their home.
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Recent Examples of traumatic
It's been a very traumatic time.
—
Lauryn Overhultz, FOXNews.com, 6 Apr. 2026
Trauma Bonding has been widely documented as a naturally occurring result of people who work in professions where they are subjected to multiple traumatic events on a regular basis.
—Opinion Staff, Daily News, 5 Apr. 2026
The oil shocks of the 1970s forced traumatic austerity on Americans.
—Idrees Kahloon, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2026
But traumatic episodes like the Notre-Dame fire generally provoke returns to the safe and familiar, not experimentation.
—David A. Bell, The New York Review of Books, 4 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for traumatic
Lauryn Overhultz, FOXNews.com, 6 Apr. 2026
Trauma Bonding has been widely documented as a naturally occurring result of people who work in professions where they are subjected to multiple traumatic events on a regular basis.
—Opinion Staff, Daily News, 5 Apr. 2026
The oil shocks of the 1970s forced traumatic austerity on Americans.
—Idrees Kahloon, The Atlantic, 5 Apr. 2026
But traumatic episodes like the Notre-Dame fire generally provoke returns to the safe and familiar, not experimentation.
—David A. Bell, The New York Review of Books, 4 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for traumatic
Recent Examples of Synonyms for traumatic
Adjective
-
Zack James’ shifty drumming hammers out a drum ’n’ bass redux like a panicked heartbeat while Carney Hemler’s bass lurches in slow motion, replicating the gut drop of a horrible realization.—
Nina Corcoran,
Pitchfork,
3 Apr. 2026
-
Fendelman captured that horrible silence in the doc, punctuated by Littlejohn’s niece screaming, feral and raw.—
Brenna Ehrlich,
Rolling Stone,
3 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
In the following months, painful shocks radiated through her chest and back.—
Brett Kelman,
USA Today,
4 Apr. 2026
-
The images of that crash were shared widely online and caught Noah Williams' attention, triggering painful memories and taking him back to the day his own life changed forever.—
Karen Morfitt,
CBS News,
4 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
At that point, something terrible, something on the scale of the Maidan protests in Ukraine in 2014, is not inconceivable.—
Kapil Komireddi,
New Yorker,
10 Apr. 2026
-
Between some horrendous screw-ups, terrible decision-making, and some plain old bad luck, their situation, and that of their mother, Linda Morelli (Laurie Metcalf), who is running for mayor, only gets worse.—
Maggie Fremont,
Vulture,
9 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
But voters renewed the tax with overwhelming support in past elections and did so again on Tuesday.—
Chris Higgins,
Kansas City Star,
8 Apr. 2026
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The sheer area of the ocean that could be harmed by drilling is also overwhelming.—
Kristen Monsell,
Sun Sentinel,
7 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
According to the film’s official logline, the story begins when police chief Bum-seok, played by Hwang, receives unsettling news from local youths that a tiger has appeared in the hills, a report that erupts into village-wide panic and soon escalates into something far stranger.—
Patrick Brzeski,
HollywoodReporter,
9 Apr. 2026
-
As the façade of privilege begins to crack, the film charts an unsettling psychological terrain.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
The only way to pull out of an awful season-opening stretch is one at-bat, one pitch, one win at a time.—
Jen McCaffrey,
New York Times,
8 Apr. 2026
-
Still, outside of two games, the offense has been awful.—
Patrick Saunders,
Denver Post,
8 Apr. 2026
Adjective
-
Chemistry a texture in the air, every glance charged, the anticipation almost unbearable.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Apr. 2026
-
Our lawsuit argues that the President doesn’t have the power to impose these tariffs, which create an unnecessary and possibly unbearable financial burden for independent companies like ours to bear.—
Ori Zohar,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
27 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
The Drama stars Robert Pattinson and Zendaya as Charlie and Emma, a young couple whose lives and upcoming wedding are thrown into disarray when the latter drunkenly reveals a disturbing secret from her past.—
Mike Miller,
Entertainment Weekly,
4 Apr. 2026
-
The details her 10-year-old daughter provided were disturbing for any parent to hear.—
Ashley Sharp,
CBS News,
3 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Traumatic.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/traumatic. Accessed 10 Apr. 2026.
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