1. An example of a special situation or an example of something that takes place: Tom's cousin was arrested by the police as a suspect in a bank robbery; however, it was a case of mistaken identity.

In many cases, reliable statistics are not available in the government's reports.

2. A process of an inquiry being conducted by the police: The authorities are trying to determine a case about a little girl's abduction as efforts are being made to find out who she is.
3. An instance of a disease or a medical problem: There are cases of thousands of people who are suffering from starvation.

Parents were asked to examine their children carefully because there were three cases of chicken pox in the school.

4. Someone whose situation is regarded as having no chance of improvement: Rebecca had a sad case of pancreatic cancer and was not expected to live much longer.
5. A legal action; especially, something that is to be decided in a court of law: Sam's sister had her lawyer bring a libel case against her former employer for abuse.
6. In grammar, a form of a noun, pronoun, or adjective showing its relationship to other words in a sentence: The cases of personal pronouns are "nominative, objective", and "possessive"."

• The nominative cases are 1st person: I, we; 2nd person: you; 3rd person: he, she, it, they.
• The objective cases are 1st person: me, us; 2nd person: you; 3rd person: him, her, them, it.
• The possessive cases are 1st person: my, mine, our, ours; 2nd person: your, yours; 3rd person: his, her, hers, its, their, theirs.

7. The presentation of a convincing argument: The congressman made a good case for cutting expenses for the federal project.
8. Etymology: borrowed from old French cas which came from a Latin casus, "fall, chance" and cadere, "to fall".