Any injury to the body, whether physically or emotionally inflicted: Trauma has both a medical and a psychiatric definition. Medically, trauma refers to a serious or critical bodily injury, wound, or shock.

This definition is often associated with trauma medicine practiced in emergency rooms and represents a popular view of the term.

In psychiatry, trauma has assumed a different meaning and refers to an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful, or shocking, and which often results in long-term mental and physical effects.