Word.ws English Dictionary

mortal

UK/ˈmɔː.təl//ˈmɔɹ.təl/

mortal adjective: susceptible to death by aging, sickness, injury, or wound; not immortal.

Adjective

mortal (comparative more mortal, superlative most mortal)

  1. Susceptible to death by aging, sickness, injury, or wound; not immortal.
  2. Causing death; deadly, fatal, killing, lethal (now only of wounds, injuries etc.).
    • Blyndfold he was; and in his cruell fist
      A mortall bow and arrowes keene did hold […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    • into the plain
      Disgorged at length, the dead and the alive,
      In one dread mass, were parted, and the stain
      Of blood from mortal steel fell o’er the fields like rain.1817 December, Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Revolt of Islam. […]”, in [Mary] Shelley, editor, The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon […], published 1839, →OCLC...
    Synonyms:
    fatal, lethal, baneful
  3. Punishable by death.
  4. Fatally vulnerable.
    • Last of all, against himself he turns his sword, but missing the mortal place, with his poniard finishes the work.1670, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC
  5. Of or relating to the time of death.
    • Safe in the hand of one disposing Power,
      Or in the natal or the mortal hour.1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC
  6. Affecting as if with power to kill; deathly; related to a life-and-death struggle.
    • mortal enemy
    • The nymph grew pale, and in a mortal fright.1717, John Dryden [et al.], “(please specify |book=I to XV)”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
  7. Human; belonging or pertaining to people who are mortal.
    • mortal wit or knowledge; mortal power
    • The voice of God
      To mortal ear is dreadful.1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  8. Very painful or tedious; wearisome.
    • a sermon lasting two mortal hours
  9. (Geordie, Scotland, slang) Very drunk.
    • Thats^([sic]) nothing, says Tequila Sheila, who told how the summer she was housemaid in The Saint Columba she took this guy back to the staff flats while mortal on slammers and crashed out on him before anything could happen.1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, Vintage, published 2015, page 13
    Synonyms:
    mortalled
  10. Causing spiritual death (the destruction of charity in the soul) and thus, a disruption of one's relationship with God.
  11. (colloquial, dated) An intensifier.
    • "We will do any mortal thing you like, Max, if you will allow Parkinson to administer a bromo-seltzer and then enable me to meet the officials of the Direct Insurance without a blush."1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados

Noun

mortal (plural mortals)

  1. A human; someone susceptible to death.
    • Her wisdom was beyond that of a mere mortal.
    • Lord what fools these mortals be!c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...
    Antonyms:
    immortal

Adverb

mortal (not comparable)

  1. (colloquial) Mortally; enough to cause death.
    • It's mortal cold out there.

mortal meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

mortal in Hindi

susceptible to death
नश्वर naśvar
causing death; deadly; fatal; killing
घातक ghātak, प्राणघातक prāṇghātak
human; someone susceptible to death
नश्वर naśvar

mortal in Tamil

அழிவுறும், இறக்கும், மடியும், மனிதழிவு, உயிரழிவு, மாள்மனிதம்

mortal in Marathi

नश्वर

mortal in Urdu

mortal; perishable
فانی fānī
More languagesFewer languages
mortal in Bengali
মর্ত্য mortto, নশ্বর nôśśôr, ফানা phana
mortal in Malayalam
മരണമുളള, മരിക്കത്തക്ക, ചാകുന്ന
mortal in Kannada
ಮನುಷ್ಯ, ನರ, ಮರ್ತ್ಯ, ನಶ್ವರ ಪ್ರಾಣಿ
mortal in Punjabi
ਖਰਲ kharal
mortal in Gujarati
નશ્વર, મરણશીલ
mortal in Odia
ନଶ୍ବର
mortal in Sanskrit
मर्त márta, मर्त्य mártya, जन jána
mortal in Nepali
नश्वर
mortal in Tagalog
palana, taong palana
mortal in Persian
میرا mirâ, مردنی mordani
mortal in Vietnamese
có chết, phàm nhân, nhân gian, phàm phu

Examples of mortal in a sentence

  • I was in mortal fear lest the captain should repent of his confessions and make an end of me.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
  • Mortal law enforcement he avoided at all costs[…]2012, Olivia Gates, Immortal, Insatiable, Indomitable, Harlequin, →ISBN:

All 40 example sentences with mortal

Synonyms of mortal

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of mortal

Forms of mortal

Adjective
comparativemore mortal
superlativemost mortal
Noun
pluralmortals

Origin of mortal

From Middle English mortal, mortel, from Old French mortal, and their source Latin mortālis, from mors (“death”). In this sense, displaced native deadly, from Old English dēadlīċ.

Words formed from mortal

Phrases with mortal

Words that rhyme with mortal

Questions about mortal

What does mortal mean?
Mortal means susceptible to death by aging, sickness, injury, or wound; not immortal.
What is mortal in Hindi?
Mortal in Hindi is नश्वर (naśvar), घातक (ghātak), प्राणघातक (prāṇghātak). See Mortal meaning in Hindi.
How do you use mortal in a sentence?
I was in mortal fear lest the captain should repent of his confessions and make an end of me.
What part of speech is mortal?
Mortal can be an adjective, a noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce mortal?
Mortal is pronounced /ˈmɔː.təl/ (UK).

Words near mortal in the dictionary

  1. Morta
  2. mortadella
  3. mortadellas
  4. mortadelle
  5. mortage
  6. mortal
  7. mortal coil
  8. mortal coils
  9. mortal combat
  10. mortal combats
  11. mortal remains

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mortal (page history and authors); mortal (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mortal (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); فانی (Urdu) (page history and authors); নশ্বর (Bengali) (page history and authors); mortal (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); mortal (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਖਰਲ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); mortal (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mortal (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); जन (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); mortal (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-mortal.ogg.

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