mortality

Plural

mortalities

1. 1.The state or quality of being mortal.

   • But on that onerous day [of the funeral], oppressed beyond relief, my own mortality was borne in upon me on sluggish tides of doom.
   • 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?

2. 2.The number of deaths; and, usually and especially, the number of deaths per time unit (usually per year), expressed as a rate.

   • In foundling hospitals, and among the children brought up by parish charities the mortality is still greater than among those of the common people.
   • And, even in peace and at home, what was the sanitary condition of the Army? The mortality in the barracks was, she found, nearly double the mortality in civil life.
   • The Great Frost was, historians tell us, the most severe that has ever visited these islands. Birds froze in mid air and fell like stones to the ground. […] The mortality among sheep and cattle was enormous.

3. 3.Death.

Overall

Rare· #4488

By learning goal

Everyday conversation

Rare

General reading & writing

Rare

Academic

Rare

Literature

Rare