noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The state or quality of being deathly. uncountable

   "The deathliness of Hirst’s garden paintings conveys the dire truth about Frieze."

Synonyms

All synonyms

abeyanceapathycatalepsydormancyeerinessentropy

Example

More examples

"The deathliness of Hirst’s garden paintings conveys the dire truth about Frieze."

Etymology

From Middle English dethliknesse, from Old English dēaþlīcnes, equivalent to deathly + -ness.

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