lethal

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈliː.θəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːθəl

Etymology 1

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”).

Adjective

lethal (comparative more lethal, superlative most lethal)

1. Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.
   • 2013 July 20, “Old soldiers?”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     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.

Derived terms

• 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

Related terms

• nonlethality
• semilethality
• sublethality
• sublethally

Translations

of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal

Arabic: مُمِيت (mumīt) Belarusian: смяро́тны (smjarótny), смертано́сны (smjertanósny), лета́льны (ljetálʹny) Bulgarian: смъртоно́сен (bg) (smǎrtonósen), смъ́ртен (bg) (smǎ́rten), лета́лен (bg) (letálen) Catalan: letal (ca), mortal (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 致命的 (zh) (zhìmìng de)，致死的 (zhìsǐdē) Czech: smrtící (cs), smrtonosný, smrtelný (cs) Dutch: dodelijk (nl), letaal (nl) Esperanto: mortiga Finnish: kuolettava (fi), tappava (fi), letaali (fi) French: létal (fr), léthal (fr) (obsolete, now considered to be a misspelling), mortel (fr), fatal (fr) German: tödlich (de), letal (de) Greek: φονικός (el) (fonikós), θανατηφόρος (el) (thanatifóros) Ancient: θανάσιμος (thanásimos) Indonesian: letal (id) Irish: marfach Italian: letale (it) Japanese: 必殺の (ja) (ひっさつの, hissatsu no), 致命的な (ja) (ちめいてきな, chimeiteki na), 致死の (ja) (ち​しの, chishi no) Korean: 치명적인 (chimyeongjeog-in), 치사의 (ko) (chisaui) Latin: mortifer, mortiferus, lētālis, lēthālis Macedonian: смртен (smrten) Polish: letalny (pl), śmiertelny (pl), śmiercionośny (pl) Portuguese: fatal (pt), letal (pt), mortal (pt) Russian: смерте́льный (ru) (smertélʹnyj), смертоно́сный (ru) (smertonósnyj) (especially of weapons), лета́льный (ru) (letálʹnyj) (esp. medical) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: смр̏тан, смрто̀носан Roman: smȑtan (sh), smrtònosan (sh) Slovak: smrteľný (sk), smrtonosný, smrtiaci Slovene: smrtonosen (sl), smrten Spanish: letal (es) Swedish: dödlig (sv), livsfarlig (sv) Ukrainian: смерте́льний (smertélʹnyj), смертоно́сний (smertonósnyj), лета́льний (letálʹnyj)

Noun

lethal (plural lethals)

1. Any weapon that causes death.

   Antonym: non-lethal

2. (genetics) An allele that causes the death of the organism that carries it.

Etymology 2

Abbreviation of “lauric acid ethereal salt”, so called because it occurs in the ethereal salt of lauric acid.

Noun

lethal (uncountable)

1. (chemistry) One of the higher alcohols of the paraffine series obtained from spermaceti as a white crystalline solid.

Translations

alcohol

Further reading

• “lethal”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “lethal”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.