deadly
/ˈdɛdli/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.16 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Aiming or willing to destroy; implacable; desperately hostile.
Example Sentences
- "[…]he ſuffred hym ſelfe to be made mortall and dedly, that innocent & gyltles in hym ſelfe: he myght be ſlayne & deye for the gylty man."
- "❧ That when the iournay / of this dedly life / My ſely ghoſte / hath finiſhed and thence[…]"
- "And next we find / Ourselves in Heaven. Even man's deadly life / Can be there, by God's leave."
- "But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window[…], and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, little dreaming that the deadly tube was levelled at them."
- "[…] others search for new and deadlier gases, or for soluble poisons capable of being produced in such quantities as to destroy the vegetation of whole continents […]"
- "The killing of more than 90 journalists in Iraq in 43 months after the invasion was to mark it out as one of the deadliest conflicts to cover."
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dʰew-der. Proto-Germanic *dawjaną Proto-Germanic *daudaz Proto-West Germanic *daud Old English dēad Proto-Indo-European *leyg-der. Proto-Germanic *līkąder. Proto-Germanic *-līkaz Proto-West Germanic *-līk Old English -līċ Old English dēadlīċ Middle English dedly English deadly From Middle English dedly, dedlych, dedlich, from Old English dēadlīċ (adjective), from Proto-West Germanic *dauþalīk, from Proto-Germanic *dauþalīkaz (“deadly”, literally “deathly”). By surface analysis, dead + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian dodelk (“deadly”), West Frisian deadlik (“deadly”), Dutch dodelijk (“deadly”), German tödlich (“deadly”), Swedish dödlig (“deadly, fatal, mortal”), Icelandic dauðlegur (“mortal”). The adverb is from Middle English dedliche, from Old English dēadlīċe (adverb), from the adjective.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: dedly, dēadlīċ, *dauþalīk, *dauþalīkaz, dedliche, dēadlīċe
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɛdli/
- British English: /ˈdɛdli/