Word.ws English Dictionary

death

/dɛθ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northumbria/diːθ/

death noun: the cessation of life and all associated processes; the end of an organism's existence as an entity independent from its environment and its return to an inert, non-living state.

Noun

death (countable and uncountable, plural deaths)

  1. The cessation of life and all associated processes; the end of an organism's existence as an entity independent from its environment and its return to an inert, non-living state.
    • My grandfather died/met a violent death, which saddened the whole family.
    • But foraſmuch as this [the faintneſs of the Heart] is a very bad and heavy diſtemper, and a fore-runner of death, therefore 'tis called a timely death.1680, T. K., The Kitchin-Phyſician; Or, a Guide for Good-Housewives in Maintaining Their Families in Health. […] , To cure the faintneſs of the Heart, page 71
    1. Execution (in the judicial sense).
      • The serial killer was sentenced to death.
      • Thirty years after Gao Chengyong embarked on a succession of 11 rape-murders of women in northwest China, a court sentenced him to death on Friday, following an investigation that involved sifting through 230,000 fingerprints.2018 March 30, Chris Buckley, “‘Vicious’ Killer of 11 Women Gets Death Penalty in China”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 31 Mar 2018, Asia Pacific
  2. (capitalized, often) The personification of death as a (usually male) hooded figure with a scythe; the Grim Reaper.
    • When death walked in, a chill spread through the room.
    • And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, & his name that sat on him was Death"1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 6:8
  3. (preceded by the) The collapse or end of something.
    • England scored a goal at the death to even the score at one all.
    • Buyer (negotiating): You were at two-fifty on that one. Go on, then, what's the death on that? Seller: Two hundred pounds is the absolute death. Buyer: Sold. Thank you.
    1. (especially, figuratively, preceded by the) A cause of great stress, exhaustion, embarrassment, or another negative condition (for someone).
      • This bake sale is going to be the death of me!
  4. (figuratively) Spiritual lifelessness.

Proper noun capitalized: Death

Death

  1. The personification of death, often a skeleton with a scythe, and one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
    • Death can be seen on a tarot card.
    • 7 And when hee had opened the fourth seale, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
      8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, & his name that sate on him was Death, and hell followed with him: and power was giuen vnto them, ouer the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword, &...1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Revelation 6:7–8
    Synonyms:
    the angel of death, Azrael, the Grim Reaper, the reaper, the pale rider, the rider, psychopomp, Santa Muerte, the Shinigami
  2. A surname.

death meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

death in Hindi

cessation of life
मृत्यु mŕtyu, मरण maraṇ, मौत maut, मर्ग marg, मरना marnā, विनाश vināś
collapse or end
निधन nidhan
personification of death
मृत्यु mŕtyu, यम yam, काल kāl

death in Tamil

cessation of life
மரணம் maraṇam, இறப்பு iṟappu, சாவு cāvu

death in Marathi

cessation of life
मरण maraṇ, मृत्यू mŕtyū

death in Urdu

cessation of life
مَوت maut, مَرْگ marg, وَفات vafāt, اِنْتِقال intiqāl, اَجَل ajal
More languagesFewer languages
death in Bengali
মৃত্যু mrittu, ইন্তেকাল intekal, ওফাত ōphat, মরণ moron
death in Telugu
మరణము maraṇamu, చావు cāvu
death in Malayalam
മരണം maraṇaṁ
death in Kannada
ಮರಣ maraṇa
death in Punjabi
ਮੌਤ maut, ਜਮ jam, ਮਰਗ marag
death in Gujarati
મૃત્યુ mŕtyu, મરણ maraṇ
death in Odia
ମରଣ maraṇa, ମୃତ୍ୟୁ mrutyu
death in Sanskrit
मृत्यु mṛtyú, मरण maraṇa, निर्वाण nirvāṇa, मार māra
death in Sinhala
මරණය maraṇaya
death in Assamese
মৃত্যু mriittu, মৰণ moron
death in Nepali
मृत्यु mr̥tyu, मरण maraṇ
death in Pashto
مرګ marg, وفات wafāt
death in Tagalog
kamatayan
death in Arabic
مَوْت mawt, وَفَاة wafāh, هَلَاك halāk, مَنِيَّة maniyya
death in Malay
kematian
death in Indonesian
kematian
death in Persian
مَوْت mawt, مَرْگ marg, وَفَات wafāt, دَرْگُذَشْت darguzašt
death in Thai
ความตาย kwaam-dtaai, มรณะ mɔɔ-rá-ná
death in Vietnamese
tử vong, tử thần, thần chết, cái chết
death in Myanmar
မရဏ ma.ra.na., အသေ a.se, သေခြင်း sehkrang:
Sindhi
وَفاتِ vafāti
Dhivehi
މަރު maru, ޥަފާތް wafāt̊

Examples of death in a sentence

  • Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
  • "‘Death,’" quoted Warwick, with whose mood the undertaker's remarks were in tune, "‘is the penalty that all must pay for the crime of living.’"1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, chapter I, in The House Behind the Cedars:
  • Furthermore, this increase in risk is comparable to the risk of death from leukemia after long-term exposure to benzene, […]2013 July-August, Philip J. Bushnell, “Solvents, Ethanol, Car Crashes & Tolerance”, in American Scientist:
  • [T]o thoſe, Jonathan, who know what death is, and what havock and deſtruction he can make, before a man can well wheel about—'tis like a whole age.1762, [Laurence Sterne], chapter IX, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume V, London: […] T. Becket and P. A....

All 40 example sentences with death

Synonyms of death

25 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of death

Forms of death

pluraldeaths
alternative formdeeeath
alternative form (obsolete)deth

Plural of death: deaths

Origin of death

From Middle English deth, deeth, from Old English dēaþ, from Proto-West Germanic *dauþu, from Proto-Germanic *dauþuz, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰówtus. More at die. Cognates Cognate with Scots daeth, daith, death, deeth, deith (“death”), North Frisian Duar, duas, düüs (“death”), Saterland Frisian Dood (“death”), West Frisian dea (“death”), Dutch dood (“death”), German Tod, Todt (“death”), Limburgish doead (“death”), Luxembourgish Doud (“death”), Yiddish טויט (toyt, “death”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål død (“death”), Faroese deyði (“death”), Icelandic dauði (“death”), Norwegian Nynorsk daude, død (“death”), Swedish död (“death”), Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌸𐌿𐍃 (dauþus, “death”).

Words formed from death

Phrases with death

167 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with death

Questions about death

What does death mean?
Death means the cessation of life and all associated processes; the end of an organism's existence as an entity independent from its environment and its return to an inert, non-living state.
What is death in Hindi?
Death in Hindi is मृत्यु (mŕtyu), मरण (maraṇ), मौत (maut). See Death meaning in Hindi.
How do you use death in a sentence?
Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly.
What part of speech is death?
Death can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce death?
Death is pronounced /dɛθ/.
What is the plural of death?
The plural of death is deaths.

Words near death in the dictionary

  1. deastringency
  2. deastringent
  3. Deasy
  4. Deasys
  5. deasyville
  6. death
  7. death 'n' roll
  8. death acids
  9. death adder
  10. death adders
  11. death against

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: death (page history and authors); Death (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-death.ogg, en-uk-death.ogg.

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