lethal
/ˈliː.θəl/
lethal adjective: of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.
Adjective
lethal (comparative more lethal, superlative most lethal)
- Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.
- Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
Noun (1)
lethal (plural lethals)
- Any weapon that causes death.
- Antonyms:
- non-lethal
- An allele that causes the death of the organism that carries it.
Noun (2)
lethal (uncountable)
- One of the higher alcohols of the paraffine series obtained from spermaceti as a white crystalline solid.
lethal meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
lethal in Hindi
- lethal, deadly, killing
- क़ातिलाना qātilānā
lethal in Tamil
- கொல்லுகின்ற, கொல்லும், சாகடிக்கின்ற, சாகடிக்கும், இறப்பு ஏற்படுத்தும், உயிர்போக்கடிக்கத்தக்க
lethal in Urdu
- جان لیوا, قاتل
lethal in Bengali
- প্রাণঘাতী, মারাত্মক
More languagesFewer languages
- lethal in Malayalam
- കൊല്ലുന്ന, മാരകമായ
- lethal in Kannada
- ಕೊಲ್ಲಬಲ್ಲ, ಸಾಯಿಸುವ, ಕೊಲ್ಲುವ, ಮಾರಕ
- lethal in Arabic
- مُمِيت mumīt
- lethal in Indonesian
- letal
Examples of lethal in a sentence
- They were taken unawares and overcome when the room filled with a lethal, odorless gas.
- They were taken unawares and overcome when the room filled with a lethal, odourless gas.
- The death row convict was strapped into the gurney in order to be given the lethal injection.
Antonyms of lethal
Forms of lethal
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more lethal |
| superlative | most lethal |
| Noun | |
| plural | lethals |
Origin of lethal
Learned borrowing from Latin lētālis (“deadly, mortal, fatal”), improperly written lēthālis, from lētum (“death”), improperly written as lēthum, from a supposed connection with Ancient Greek λήθη (lḗthē, “oblivion, forgetfulness”).
Abbreviation of “lauric acid ethereal salt”, so called because it occurs in the ethereal salt of lauric acid.
Words formed from lethal
- coat color dilution lethal
- colethal
- cytolethal
- haplolethal
- hyperlethal
- less-lethal
- less-than-lethal
- lethal allele
- lethal chamber
- lethal congenital contracture syndrome
- lethal dose
- lethal gene
- lethal injection
- lethality
- lethally
- lethalness
- lethal time
- lethal white syndrome
- lethal yellowing
- lethal zone
- nonlethal
- non-lethal
- semilethal
- semi-lethal
- sublethal
- sub-lethal
- superlethal
- supralethal
- triplolethal
- ultralethal
- unlethal
Phrases with lethal
Questions about lethal
- What does lethal mean?
- Lethal means of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.
- What is lethal in Hindi?
- Lethal in Hindi is क़ातिलाना (qātilānā). See Lethal meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is lethal?
- Lethal can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce lethal?
- Lethal is pronounced /ˈliː.θəl/.
Words near lethal in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lethal (page history and authors); क़ातिलाना (Hindi) (page history and authors); lethal (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lethal (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Lethal (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lethal (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lethal (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-lethal.wav.
Cite this entry: “lethal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lethal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.