Standard Lemma guide

mortality

noun · 9 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /mɔɹˈtælɪti/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M AO0 R T AE1 L AH0 T IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The state or quality of being mortal.

The state of being susceptible to death.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • 1714, Alexander Pope, letter to John Gay in Letters of Mr. Pope, and Several Eminent Persons, London, 1735, Volume 2, p. 208, I have been perpetually troubled with sickness of late, which has made me so melancholy that the Immortality of the Soul has been my constant Speculation, as the Mortality of my Body my constant Plague.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: immortality

2

noun

Meaning 2

The state or quality of being mortal.

The quality of being punishable by death.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The state or quality of being mortal.

The quality of causing death.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, countable, uncountable

Examples

  • 1685, Thomas Willis, Tract of Fevers, Chapter 15, in The London Practice of Physick, London: Thomas Basset and William Crooke, p. 626, [...] the Fevers of Women in Child-bed; to wit, both the Lacteal, and that called Putrid, which, by reason of its Mortality, deserves to be call’d Malignant.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: deadliness, lethality

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

The number of deaths; and, usually and especially, the number of deaths per time unit (usually per year), expressed as a rate.

Deaths resulting from an event (such as a war, epidemic or disaster).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

The number of deaths; and, usually and especially, the number of deaths per time unit (usually per year), expressed as a rate.

The number of deaths per given unit of population over a given period of time.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: biology, business, demographics, demography, ecology, insurance, natural-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: w:mortality rate, MR, death rate, DR

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

Death.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, figuratively, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: fatality, quietus, death, tomb, celestial transfer, decease, decomposition, defunction, dematerialization, demise, dirt nap, doom, exit, expiration, liquidation, mortality, passing, repose, sleep of the just, sunset, the big sleep, crash, downfall, fall, (the) bane, (the) end

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

Mortals collectively.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic, countable, figuratively, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: humankind, humanity, mankind

Antonyms: none provided

8

noun

Meaning 8

the quality or state of being mortal

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: immortality

Broader terms: impermanence, impermanency

9

noun

Meaning 9

the ratio of deaths in an area to the population of that area; expressed per 1000 per year

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: deathrate, death rate, mortality rate, fatality rate

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: rate

Narrower terms: infant deathrate, infant mortality, infant mortality rate, neonatal mortality, neonatal mortality rate

History

Etymology

From Old French mortalite, from Latin mortālitās, from mortālis (“relating to death”), from mors (“death”); equivalent to mortal + -ity.

Across languages

Translations

80 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Asturian: mortalidá — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Bulgarian: смъртоносност (smǎrtonosnost) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Catalan: mortalitat — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Chinese Mandarin: 必死 (bìsǐ) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Czech: smrtelnost — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Danish: dødelighed — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Dutch: sterfelijkheid — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Dutch: mortaliteit — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Esperanto: morteco — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Finnish: kuolevaisuus — condition of being susceptible to death
  • French: mortalité — condition of being susceptible to death
  • French: condition mortelle — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Galician: mortalidade — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Georgian: სასიკვდილოობა (sasiḳvdilooba) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • German: Sterblichkeit — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Greek: θνησιμότητα (thnisimótita) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Ancient Greek: θνητότης (thnētótēs) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Hebrew: תְּמוּתָה (tmutá) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Hungarian: halandóság — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Indonesian: mortalitas — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Irish: básmhaireacht — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Italian: mortalità — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Japanese: 必滅 (hitsumetsu) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Korean: 사망 (samang) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Kyrgyz: өлүмдүүлүк (ölümdüülük) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Lao: ອັດຕາການຕາຍ (ʼat tā kān tāi) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Luxembourgish: Stierflechkeet — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Malay: mortaliti — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Norman: mortalité — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Norwegian Bokmål: dødelighet — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: dødelegheit — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: døyelegheit — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Old English: dēadlīcnes — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Polish: śmiertelność — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Portuguese: mortalidade — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Russian: сме́ртность (smértnostʹ) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Serbo-Croatian: smrtnost — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Spanish: mortalidad — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Swedish: dödlighet — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Turkish: ölümlülük — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Ukrainian: сме́ртність (smértnistʹ) — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Volapük: deadöf — condition of being susceptible to death
  • Asturian: mortalidá — death rate
  • Belarusian: смяро́тнасць (smjarótnascʹ) — death rate
  • Bulgarian: смъртност (smǎrtnost) — death rate
  • Catalan: mortalitat — death rate
  • Chinese Mandarin: 死亡率 (sǐwánglǜ) — death rate
  • Czech: mortalita — death rate
  • Danish: dødelighed — death rate
  • Finnish: kuolleisuus — death rate
  • French: mortalité — death rate
  • French: taux de mortalité — death rate
  • Galician: mortalidade — death rate
  • Georgian: სიკვდილიანობა (siḳvdilianoba) — death rate
  • German: Sterblichkeit — death rate
  • German: Mortalität — death rate
  • German: Sterbeziffer — death rate
  • German: Mortalitätsziffer — death rate
  • Hebrew: תְּמוּתָה (tmutá) — death rate
  • Hungarian: halandóság — death rate
  • Hungarian: halálozási ráta — death rate
  • Hungarian: halálozás — death rate
  • Indonesian: mortalitas — death rate
  • Italian: mortalità — death rate
  • Japanese: 死亡率 (shibōritsu) — death rate
  • Korean: 사망률 (samangnyul) — death rate
  • Luxembourgish: Mortalitéit — death rate
  • Luxembourgish: Stierflechkeet — death rate
  • Norwegian Bokmål: dødelighet — death rate
  • Norwegian Bokmål: dødsrate — death rate
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: dødelegheit — death rate
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: døyelegheit — death rate
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: dødsrate — death rate
  • Polish: śmiertelność — death rate
  • Polish: umieralność — death rate
  • Portuguese: mortalidade — death rate
  • Russian: сме́ртность (smértnostʹ) — death rate
  • Spanish: mortalidad — death rate
  • Swedish: dödlighet — death rate
  • Ukrainian: сме́ртність (smértnistʹ) — death rate
Real reading context

mortality in complete knowledge articles