- able to cause or causing death
- of or suggestive of death
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
le•thal /ˈliθəl/USA pronunciation
adj.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- of or causing death;
deadly;
fatal:a lethal weapon; a lethal injection.
le•thal
(lē′thəl),USA pronunciation adj.
le•thal′i•ty, le′thal•ness, n.
le′thal•ly, adv.
- of, pertaining to, or causing death;
deadly;
fatal:a lethal weapon; a lethal dose. - made to cause death:a lethal chamber; a lethal attack.
- causing great harm or destruction:The disclosures were lethal to his candidacy.
- Latin lētālis, equivalent. to lēt(um) death + -ālis -al1; spelling, spelled (hence pronunciation, pronounced) with -h- by association with Greek lé̄thē oblivion
- 1575–85
le′thal•ly, adv.
- 1. See fatal.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
lethal /ˈliːθəl/ adj
'lethal' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
assisted dying
- binary weapon
- death
- fugu
- LD
- lethal dose
- mean lethal dose
- median lethal dose
- PAS
- phosgene
- Tangshan
- tetrodotoxin
- colicin
- deadly
- fatal
- grasshopper
- lethal chamber
- lethal gene
- lethiferous
- MLD
- permissive
- pernicious
- ray gun
- terminal
- therapeutic index
- sublethal
- suicide machine
- systemic