mortal Definition
mor·tal (môrt′'l)
adjective
- that must eventually die all mortal beings
- of a human being considered as a being who must eventually die
- of this world
- of death
- causing death; deadly; fatal
- to the death mortal combat
- not to be pacified a mortal enemy
- very intense; grievous mortal terror
- Informal
- extreme; very great
- very long and tedious
- conceivable; possible of no mortal good to anyone
- Theol. causing spiritual death: said of a sin serious in itself, adequately recognized as such, and committed with full consent of one's will
Etymology: OFr < L mortalis < mors (gen. mortis), death, akin to mori, to die < IE base *mer-, to die, be worn out > murder, Sans marati, (he) dies
noun
a being who must eventually die; esp., a human being; person
adverb
Dialectal extremely
mortal Related Forms
mortal Synonyms
mortal
modif.
Causing death
Subject to death
human, transient, temporal, passing, frail, impermanent, evanescent, fugacious, perishable, precarious, fading, passing away, ephemeral, momentary; see also temporary.Antonyms
eternal*, perpetual*, everlasting. * *Very great
extreme, deadly, last, ending; see grand 2. See syn. study at fatal.
mortal Synonyms
mortal Usage Examples
Converse of object
- marry: The Lord Chancellor suggests that the law should be changed to " every fairy must die that doesn't marry a mortal " .
- lie: There in Plot number 340 lie the mortal remains of Michael Barrett.
- become: He didn't just become mortal, He died.
- help: Sir John saw his investment rapidly repaid many times over and he helped the talented young mortal expand his businesses.
- make: It would be enough to make lesser mortals crawl back to the day job.
Adjective modifier
- mere: For us mere mortals there is the team relays, these are staged over the sprint distance.
- lesser: All season they have managed to compete with just 3 players with us lesser mortals playing up to help out.
- ordinary: Many ordinary Catholic mortals don't have such an easy road.
- poor: Luckily for us poor mortals it has been ported to Windows.
- normal: Normal mortals can now skip to the end of these numbered paragraphs.
- most: But even so, just one of Boris ' several jobs would be enough to keep most ordinary mortals busy and out of mischief.
Modifies a noun
- coil: At least when you shuffle off your mortal coil, the coffin will only have two corners damaged.
- peril: In their mortal peril the Greeks turned to us for succor.
- sin: Now the infused virtue of love is lost through any mortal sin.
- flesh: Then came the swish of swift sharp spears seeking the mortal flesh of adversaries.
- danger: Putting the lives of your country's citizens in constant mortal danger?
- enemy: Also, scanning many megabytes of data looking for the right bits is not a job I'd wish on my mortal enemy.
Modifying Another Word
not: The blow which had struck Michael Strogoff was not mortal.
Used with adjective complement
become: Once endowed with its less than perfect Body, the Creation, we might say, became mortal.
Preposition: with
immortality: For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
Browse dictionary entries near mortal
- ‹ mortadella
- ‹ mort
- ‹ morsel
- ‹ Morse, Samuel Finley Breese
- ‹ Morse code
- ‹ Morse
- ‹ Mors
- ‹ morrow
- ‹ morro
- ‹ Morrison

