What does "deader" mean?

One who is deceased, or will shortly become so.

What is a synonym for "deader"?

Common synonyms include: abruptly, all in, cold, complete, deadened, deathlike.

adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
One who is deceased, or will shortly become so. colloquial, humorous
"I could tell he was a deader by the way his eyes were glazed over; there was no life left in those eyes."

Adjective

1
comparative form of dead: more dead; or at least more evidently dead. colloquial, comparative, figuratively, form-of, humorous
"He was deader than a dead dog's bone buried down a blind alley off a dead-end street in a ghost town. Man, he was dead."

""Then mother's a deader too," cried the little girl, dropping her face in her pinafore and sobbing bitterly."

From dead + -er (comparative suffix) or + -er (occupational suffix).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.