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

That worker, who didn’t respond to a request for an interview, suffered a traumatic brain injury; fractures to his pelvis, right shoulder and spine; a liver laceration; a shattered kidney; and some loss of vision in both eyes, his lawyer wrote. —Madeleine O'Neill, Baltimore Sun, 20 June 2024

Hamel was an authorized user on the account, though police noted in the warrant affidavit that he was hospitalized at the time after suffering a traumatic brain injury and other injuries during a motorcycle crash on Interstate 84 in Cheshire. —Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 19 June 2024

Four adults and two children were inured in collision, including 5-year-old Ariel Young, who sustained a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma for 11 days. —Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 2 Mar. 2024

The barrage included ballistic missiles whose explosions caused shock waves that prompted concerns about traumatic brain injuries among U.S. and Iraqi troops. —Tom Vanden Brook, USA TODAY, 22 Jan. 2024

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