deadliness C2+ Topic:Describing People US /ˈdɛdlinəs/ UK /ˈdedlinəs/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun the quality of being capable of causing death The venom's deadliness alarmed the researchers. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · the quality of being... lethalityfatalitydestructivenessvirulencemortality ↔ Opposites harmlessnessinnocuousnesssafety Word family Related forms deadlydead Etymology AI details From deadly (Old English dēadlīc 'mortal, subject to death') plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. Deadly itself is from dēad ('dead') plus -līc ('-ly'). dēadlīc Old English dēad Old English View etymology graph -> Topics Describing People Word Formation & Derivatives External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # deadliness **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /ˈdɛdlinəs/ **IPA (UK):** /ˈdedlinəs/ ## Meanings 1. the quality of being capable of causing death ## Examples - The venom's deadliness alarmed the researchers. ## Synonyms - lethality - fatality - destructiveness - virulence - mortality ## Antonyms - harmlessness - innocuousness - safety ## Related Forms - deadly - dead ## Roots and Affixes - Root: dēadlīc - Root: dēad ## Etymology From deadly (Old English dēadlīc 'mortal, subject to death') plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. Deadly itself is from dēad ('dead') plus -līc ('-ly'). ## AI Etymology Deadliness is from deadly (Old English dēadlīc 'mortal, subject to death') plus the noun-forming suffix -ness. Deadly itself is from dēad ('dead') plus -līc ('-ly'). The ancestry passes through Old English dēadlīc and Old English dēad. The suffix -ness marks an abstract noun of quality or state, so the English form is shaped by recognizable word formation as well as by its inherited or borrowed base. In present use as a noun, it means "the quality of being capable of causing death", keeping the historical formation close to the word's ordinary semantic work. Related words include deadly and dead. ## Topics - Describing People - Word Formation & Derivatives markdown