Mortality Meaning
/mɔɹˈtælɪti/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounThe state or quality of being mortal.
nounThe state or quality of being mortal., The state of being susceptible to death.
Sentence Examples
The mortality rate per 1000 live births are set out in figure 13.1.
Above the moon, everything is eternal; below, there is nothing save mortality.
People do not enjoy being confronted with their mortality.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
None
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
The study of ____ rates helps scientists understand how long people live.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Public health experts are working very hard to reduce the infant ____ rate in several developing countries by improving local medical care.
Word Origin & History
From Old French mortalite, from Latin mortālitās, from mortālis (“relating to death”), from mors (“death”); equivalent to mortal + -ity.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[H]er minde remembreth her mortalitie, / vvhat ſo is fayreſt ſhall to earth returne."
— 1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet XIII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature [A8], verso:
"Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, / But sad mortality o’er-sways their power, / How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, / Whose action is no stronger than a flower?"
— 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 65”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC:
"“[…] Thy sense is clogg’d with dull mortality; / They spirit fetter’d with the bond of clay: / Open thine eyes and see.”"
— 1829, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Timbuctoo”, in A Complete Collection of the English Poems Which Have Obtained the Chancellor’s Gold Medal in the University of Cambridge, Cambridge: Macmillan, published 1859, page 156:
"But on that onerous day [of the funeral], oppressed beyond relief, my own mortality was borne in upon me on sluggish tides of doom."
— 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 2, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, page 157:
"[…] actions of Charity do alleviate, as I may say, and take off from the Mortality of the Sin."
— 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act II, page 28:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The study of ____ rates helps scientists understand how long people live.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Public health experts are working very hard to reduce the infant ____ rate in several developing countries by improving local medical care.