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deadly.

Subject to death; mortal.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈdɛdli/General-American, Received-Pronunciation

  1. Subject to death; mortal.

    obsolete · rare

  2. Causing death; lethal.

  3. Aiming or willing to destroy; implacable; desperately hostile.

    deadly enemies

  4. Very accurate (of aiming with a bow, firearm, etc.).

  5. Very boring.

    informal

  6. Excellent, awesome, cool.

    Ireland · Newfoundland · informal
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰew-der. Proto-Germanic *dawjaną Proto-Germanic *daudaz Proto-West Germanic *daud Old English dēad Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-West Germanic *-līk Old English -līċ Old English dēadlīċ Middle English dedly English deadly From Middle English dedly, dedlych, dedlich, from Old English dēadlīċ (adjective), from Proto-West Germanic *dauþalīk, from Proto-Germanic *dauþalīkaz (“deadly”, literally “deathly”). By surface analysis, dead + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian dodelk (“deadly”), West Frisian deadlik (“deadly”), Dutch dodelijk (“deadly”), German tödlich (“deadly”), Swedish dödlig (“deadly, fatal, mortal”), Icelandic dauðlegur (“mortal”). The adverb is from Middle English dedliche, from Old English dēadlīċe (adverb), from the adjective.

adv/ˈdɛdli/General-American, Received-Pronunciation

  1. Fatally, mortally.

    obsolete

  2. In a way which suggests death.

    Her face suddenly became deadly white.

  3. Extremely, incredibly.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰew-der. Proto-Germanic *dawjaną Proto-Germanic *daudaz Proto-West Germanic *daud Old English dēad Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-West Germanic *-līk Old English -līċ Old English dēadlīċ Middle English dedly English deadly From Middle English dedly, dedlych, dedlich, from Old English dēadlīċ (adjective), from Proto-West Germanic *dauþalīk, from Proto-Germanic *dauþalīkaz (“deadly”, literally “deathly”). By surface analysis, dead + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian dodelk (“deadly”), West Frisian deadlik (“deadly”), Dutch dodelijk (“deadly”), German tödlich (“deadly”), Swedish dödlig (“deadly, fatal, mortal”), Icelandic dauðlegur (“mortal”). The adverb is from Middle English dedliche, from Old English dēadlīċe (adverb), from the adjective.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.