DictionaryAI

death

noun
DETH/dɛθ/

Pluraldeaths

6 meanings of death

Practice

  1. 1
    loss of lifenouncountable or uncountable
    The permanent end of life in a person, animal, plant or cell, when it can no longer carry out the functions that keep it alive.

    Like a clock that has wound down completely and will never tick again.

    The doctors could do nothing to prevent his death.

    Cell death is a normal part of how the body renews its tissues.

    UsageDeath is the noun, die the verb: his death, he died. You can say a death, or add an adjective: a violent death.

    Similardemise, passing, dying

    Oppositelife, birth

    Note

    English also lets someone come by their death, as Richard Jefferies wrote in 1879.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  2. 2
    executionnoununcountable
    Execution as a legal punishment; the carrying out of a sentence that ends a condemned person's life.

    The jury recommended death for the most serious of the charges.

    Many nations have abolished death as a punishment for any crime.

    UsageMostly in sentence someone to death, with no article, and the death penalty.

    Similarexecution

  3. 3
    collapsenounusually singular
    The collapse or final ending of something, such as a project, institution, or idea.

    Like the final curtain on a show that closes for good.

    The death of the empire came not in battle but through slow decay.

    Critics announced the death of the genre far too early.

    UsageOften used in the death of something: the death of the high street. Another common pattern is die a slow death.

    Similarend, demise, collapse, downfall

    Oppositebirth, rise

    Note

    British sport has a separate idiom, at the death, for the last moments of a match.

Less common meanings

  1. 4
    big strainnounfigurativelyusually singular
    A cause of great stress, exhaustion, embarrassment, or other strongly negative feeling for someone.

    Honestly, these early-morning meetings are going to be the death of me.

    He joked that his children's energy would be the death of him yet.

    UsageA set joking complaint: this job will be the death of me.

    Similarundoing, ruin, bane

  2. 5
    Grim Reapernoununcountable
    The figure who personifies dying, usually shown as a hooded male form carrying a scythe: the Grim Reaper.

    Death came for him at midnight, scythe in hand, just as the legends warned.

    In the fresco, Death joins the dance, taking pope and pauper by the hand alike.

    Note

    A figure rather than an event, and so often written with a capital D. Death rides a pale horse in the King James Bible of 1611, and the image has lasted. Peter Gabriel and his bandmates still sang that she comes on a pale horse in 1974. The pronoun varies. In Laurence Sterne, death is he, wreaking havoc, and the hooded figure with the scythe is usually male.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

    • Death rides a pale horse in Revelation 6:8 of the King James Bible. en.wikisource.org
    • The King James Bible was first published in 1611. loc.gov
    • Peter Gabriel was Genesis's lead vocalist on the album containing the song. en.wikipedia.org
    • Genesis's song “Anyway” uses “she” for the figure coming on a pale horse. en.wikipedia.org
    • The song appeared on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in 1974. petergabriel.com
    • In Sterne's Tristram Shandy, Corporal Trim refers to death as “he” and describes its havoc. gutenberg.org
    • The conventional personification of Death is usually male. en.wikipedia.org
  3. 6
    spiritualnounfigurativelyuncountable
    A condition of spiritual lifelessness, in which a person is regarded as separated from spiritual or divine life.

    The sermon described sin as a kind of death that separates the soul from God.

    In that tradition, true death is spiritual, not the mere failing of the body.

    Oppositelife

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of death apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

This word comes from Middle English "deeth" and Old English "dēaþ", tracing back through Proto-Germanic "*dauþuz" (compare Dutch "dood", German "Tod", and Swedish "död") to Proto-Indo-European "*dʰówtus". It is related to "die".

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts