mortality

[mawr-tal-i-tee]

noun

plural

mortalities 

1. the state or condition of being subject to death; mortal character, nature, or existence.

2. the relative frequency of deaths in a specific population; death rate.

3. mortal beings collectively; humanity.

4. death or destruction on a large scale, as from war, plague, or famine.

5. Obsolete.,  death.

mortality

/ mɔːˈtælɪtɪ /

noun

1. the condition of being mortal

2. great loss of life, as in war or disaster

3. the number of deaths in a given period

4. mankind; humanity

5. an obsolete word for death

Word History and Origins

Origin of mortality¹

1300–50; Middle English mortalite < Middle French < Latin mortālitās. See mortal, -ity

Example Sentences

Real performances carry with them a beautiful imperfection, and it is within this often messy mortality that they feel truly alive.

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But it’s not just his own mortality, shrinking mental acuity and the Jeffrey Epstein case that is scaring him.

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One of the emails shared with Ms Cockburn included figures from a departmental mortality audit.

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"Given the mortality rates, we know that there must be other families out there who like us feel that children's deaths were preventable," he said.

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They claimed yearly mortality rates on average were seldom lower than 400.

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Related Words

• fatality 

When To Use

What’s the difference between mortality and morbidity?

In a medical context, the word mortality refers to relative frequency of deaths in a specific population or location (sometimes called the mortality rate), while the word morbidity refers to the incidence or prevalence of a disease in a specific population or location (sometimes called the morbidity rate).The related word cormorbidity is used in medical contexts to refer to the state of having multiple medical conditions at the same time.In this context, morbidity relates to sickness, while mortality relates to death.Both morbidity and mortality are also used in nontechnical ways. Morbidity is the noun form of the adjective morbid, which most commonly means excessively gloomy or having an unusual interest in dark subjects, like death. Morbidity, then, can be used to refer to the quality of having this interest, as in Her latest novel lacks the morbidity of her earlier works. Mortality, on the other hand, most commonly refers to the state or condition of being subject to death, as in Humans are aware of their own mortality. The opposite of this is immortality—unending life.Here’s an example of mortality and morbidity used correctly in the same sentence.Example: Studies show that while the morbidity in the region remains quite high, the mortality rate from the disease has continued to drop. Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between mortality and morbidity.