Word.ws English Dictionary

dead week

dead week noun: in a college or university, the week immediately preceding finals week.

Noun

dead week (plural dead weeks)

  1. In a college or university, the week immediately preceding finals week.

Synonyms of dead week

Forms of dead week

pluraldead weeks

Origin of dead week

Possibly from the propensity during this period for students to cram for final exams and complete term papers, often resulting in sleep deprivation, increased irritability, and stress. Also possibly from the lack of classes or activities scheduled during this period, in order to allow more study time.

Questions about dead week

What does dead week mean?
Dead week means in a college or university, the week immediately preceding finals week.
What part of speech is dead week?
Dead week is a noun.
What is the plural of dead week?
The plural of dead week is dead weeks.

Words near dead week in the dictionary

  1. dead wagons
  2. dead wall
  3. dead walls
  4. dead water
  5. dead waters
  6. dead week
  7. dead weeks
  8. dead weight
  9. dead weights
  10. dead white European male
  11. dead white European males

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dead week (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “dead week.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dead_week. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.