tragic

adjective

1. characteristic or suggestive of tragedy: tragic solemnity.
2. extremely mournful, melancholy, or pathetic: a tragic plight.
3. dreadful, calamitous, disastrous, or fatal: a tragic event.
4. of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of tragedy: the tragic drama.
5. acting in or writing tragedy: a tragic actor; a tragic poet.

noun

6. the tragic, the element or quality of tragedy in literature, art, drama, etc.: lives that had never known anything but the tragic.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of tragedy
2. mournful or pitiablea tragic face

adj.

1540s, “calamitous, disastrous, fatal,” shortened from tragical (late 15c.), modeled on Latin tragicus, from Greek tragikos “of or pertaining to tragedy,” literally “of or pertaining to a goat,” and probably referring to a satyr impersonated by a goat singer or satyric actor (see tragedy). Tragic flaw (1913) translates Greek hamartia.