life-and-death
adjective
ending with the death or possible death of one of the participants; crucially important.
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life and death
life and death
life-and-death
American
[lahyf-uhn-deth]
/ ˈlaɪf ənˈdɛθ /
adjective
life and death
Idioms
Etymology
Origin of life-and-death
First recorded in 1680–90
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Not having money is a life-and-death issue in America.
From MarketWatch ● May 26, 2026
"Militaries adopt AI to speed up processes such as target identification. But delegating life-and-death decisions to machines poses profound ethical and human rights risks," said Patrick Wilcken of Amnesty International.
From BBC ● May 6, 2026
The context involves a simple and crucial choice — between excessive patience and an urgency grounded in life-and-death human realities.
From Salon ● Apr. 20, 2026
Frank Lima, a Los Angeles firefighter and general secretary-treasurer of the International Assn. of Fire Fighters, or IAFF, said the stairways are a life-and-death issue.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2025
It was dangerous, but it was not a life-and-death matter.
From "1984" by George Orwell
But behind the politics were families like Kahaan's – left trying to understand how an examination scandal had become a matter of life and death.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
Must we really dwell, ladies, on the downsides of heterosexual dating, marriage, childbearing, and domestic labor as though they are issues of life and death?
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2026
Leo has denounced the race for AI in the military field, saying that "delegating decisions concerning the life and death of human beings to machines" is a "destructive spiral".
From Barron's ● May 25, 2026
They experienced a rarefied state — a gap between life and death as narrow as the notch they were attempting to clear at dusk Saturday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
If this wasn’t life and death, it was really, really close.
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
