Meaning & use
dead
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Meanings
adjectivenot comparable
No longer alive, with life having ended for good.
Grammar: Used after a verb or before a noun: the bird is dead; a dead bird.
Patterns
- be dead
- drop dead
- the dead
The plant looked dead after the cold winter.
Police found the man already dead when they arrived.
A dead fish floated near the dock.
adjectivenot comparable
Not working or no longer able to produce power or a signal.
Grammar: Describes equipment: a dead phone, a dead battery.
Patterns
- go dead
- the line went dead
My phone is dead, so I cannot call you.
The line went dead in the middle of our conversation.
He replaced the dead battery in the remote.
adjectivecomparableinformal
Without activity, interest or excitement.
Grammar: Describes places and times that are quiet: a dead town.
Patterns
- dead quiet
- the place is dead
The town is dead on Sundays.
After midnight the party was dead and most guests had left.
It was a dead afternoon with nothing on the schedule.
adverbnot comparableinformalBritish
Completely or exactly, used to add strong emphasis.
Grammar: Informal and often British: dead right, dead easy.
Patterns
- dead right
- dead on time
- dead slow
You are dead right about the price.
The train arrived dead on time.
The test was dead easy.
Word forms
| comparative | deader |
|---|---|
| superlative | deadest |
Common combinations
- drop dead
- He nearly dropped dead from the shock.
- dead end
- The investigation reached a dead end.
- dead battery
- A dead battery kept the car from starting.
- dead silence
- A dead silence fell over the room.
- dead ahead
- The lighthouse was dead ahead.
- dead language
- Latin is often called a dead language.
Synonyms and how they differ
- deceased
- Deceased is formal and respectful, used in legal and official contexts, while dead is plain and neutral.
- lifeless
- Lifeless can describe something that looks without life or energy, even if it was never alive.
- extinct
- Extinct applies to a whole species or volcano, not to individuals.
- inactive
- Inactive means not currently working, but it can start again, whereas dead usually means finished.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: dead or died?
dead vs died
Died is the past tense of the verb die, while dead is an adjective describing the state afterward: He died, so he is dead.
Practice
I cannot use the flashlight because the battery is ___.
Choose one answer.
Dead is the natural word for a battery with no power. Deceased applies to people, and extinct to species, so neither fits.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “dead”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.