mortality
/mɔːˈtalɪti
/noun (plural mortalities) [mass noun]
1The state of being subject to death: the work is increasingly haunted by thoughts of mortality...
- When Hamlet banters with the gravediggers, he becomes a clown himself, even if the subject matter is mortality.
- Why is it that we humans are subject to mortality?
- Their lives will be complicated by issues of timing, courage and mortality.
2Death, especially on a large scale: the causes of mortality among infants and young children...
- Cervical cancer is the second leading cause of cancer mortality among women worldwide.
- The most dramatic and perhaps most significant cause of natural mortality among gray whales is predation by killer whales.
- Maternal deaths have been shown to account for a substantial burden of mortality among refugee women of reproductive age.
Synonyms
death, loss of life, dying
2.1 (also mortality rate) The number of deaths in a given area or period, or from a particular cause: post-operative mortality was 90 per cent for some operations...
- If it could be proved that such centres would reduce the cancer mortality rate, few could argue against their introduction.
- But the hospital's mortality rate is 113, which puts it just above the average band.
- The mortality rate in his maternity wards eventually dropped to less than one percent.
Origin
Late Middle English: via Old French from Latin mortalitas, from mortalis (see mortal).