permadeath
/ˈpɝmədɛθ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.55 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Permanent death, where the player cannot continue but is obliged to restart the game from the beginning.
Countable; Slang; Uncountable
noun
Likewise, any situation where a player character or characters who die are lost permanently but do not trigger a game over, allowing the player to proceed without the character(s). Particularly applies if said deaths are avoidable (not forced by the plot) and occur only as a result of player blunder.
Countable; Slang; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "And yes, especially 'special' mobs coming back is a bit of a stretch. But then the players coming back is a stretch too, no? (yes, I know, many have implemented some form of permadeath)."
- "If you are doing your job right designing a game, the newbie experience should be almost good enough that people don't care about permadeath any more then they would picking up a new novel."
- "I don't consider permadeath a reasonable solution for most virtual worlds."
- "Permadeath is simply a way to encourage the playing of more than one game so they can try everything."
- "Last week, as you might recall, I promised to play Fire Emblem: Awakening with permadeath on. I also promised to continue battling no matter what happened: in other words, if any of my party members died in combat, they'd be dead for good."
- "For many fans of the dungeon crawler genre, the ultimate risk is permadeath. And it’s just what it sounds like. If you die in a game with permadeath, your character is toast. Gone. Permanently."
Etymology
Etymology tree Latin per- Proto-Indo-European *men- Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁ti Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éh₁yeti Proto-Indo-European *m̥néh₁yeti Proto-Italic *m(V)nēō Latin maneō Latin permaneōlbor. Middle French permanentbor. English permanentclip. English perma- English death English permadeath From perma- + death.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈpɝmədɛθ/