Meaning & use
untimely death
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableformal
A death that comes sooner than expected or earlier in life than is normal or fair.
Grammar: Usually 'an untimely death' or 'his untimely death': his untimely death shocked everyone.
Patterns
- someone's untimely death
- mourn the untimely death of someone
The singer's untimely death left fans heartbroken.
The community mourned the untimely death of its beloved teacher.
Her untimely death at thirty-five was a shock to the whole family.
Word forms
| plural | untimely deaths |
|---|
Common combinations
- suffer an untimely death
- The poet suffered an untimely death.
- mourn his untimely death
- Friends mourn his untimely death.
- meet an untimely death
- The explorer met an untimely death on the ice.
- following his untimely death
- Following his untimely death, a scholarship was created.
- tragic untimely death
- A tragic untimely death cut short her career.
Synonyms and how they differ
- premature death
- Premature death is also used in medicine and statistics, so it sounds more clinical.
- early death
- Early death is plainer and carries less emotion than untimely.
- sudden death
- Sudden death stresses the unexpected nature, not whether the person was young.
- passing
- Passing is a soft word for death in general and does not suggest someone died too young.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: untimely death or sudden death?
untimely death vs sudden death
A sudden death comes without warning, but the person need not be young; an untimely death comes too early.
Practice
Which event is best described as an 'untimely death'?
Choose one answer.
An untimely death comes too early in life, like a young athlete's death. A peaceful death at ninety is not early, and the others are not deaths of people.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “untimely death”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.