Skip to content

lethal

adjective

  1. of an instrument of certain death
L253546 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈliː.θəl/

adj

Etymology: Learned borrowing from Latin lētālis (“deadly, mortal, fatal”), improperly written lēthālis, from lētum (“death”), improperly written as lēthum, from a supposed connection with Ancient Greek λήθη (lḗthē, “oblivion, forgetfulness”).

  1. Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.

    Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.

noun

Etymology: Abbreviation of “lauric acid ethereal salt”, so called because it occurs in the ethereal salt of lauric acid.

  1. One of the higher alcohols of the paraffine series obtained from spermaceti as a white crystalline solid.