What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Lethal vs Deadly - What's the difference?

lethal | deadly |

As adjectives the difference between lethal and deadly

is that lethal is deadly; mortal; fatal while deadly is subject to death; mortal.

As a noun lethal

is one of the higher alcohols of the paraffine series obtained from spermaceti as a white crystalline solid.

As an adverb deadly is

fatally, mortally.

lethal

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Deadly; mortal; fatal.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Old soldiers? , passage=Whether modern, industrial man is less or more warlike than his hunter-gatherer ancestors is impossible to determine. The machine gun is so much more lethal than the bow and arrow that comparisons are meaningless.}}
    Related terms
    * lethality * semilethal

    Etymology 2

    Abbreviation of “lauric acid ethereal salt”, so called because it occurs in the ethereal salt of lauric acid.

    Noun

    (-)
  • (chemistry) One of the higher alcohols of the paraffine series obtained from spermaceti as a white crystalline solid.

    • External links

    * *

    deadly

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (lb) Subject to death; mortal.
  • *:
  • *:And whan he cam to the sacrament of the masse / and had done / anone he called Galahad and sayd to hym come forthe the seruaunt of Ihesu cryst and thou shalt see that thou hast moche desyred to see / & thenne he beganne to tremble ryght hard / whan the dedely flesshe beganne to beholde the spyrytuel thynges
  • *Wyclif Bible, (w) i. 23
  • *:The image of a deadly man.
  • Causing death; lethal.
  • Aiming or willing to destroy; implacable; desperately hostile.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:Thy assailant is quick, skillful, and deadly .
  • (lb) Very accurate (of aiming with a bow, firearm, etc.).
  • *
  • *:But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶, 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.
  • (lb) Very boring.
  • *
  • *:“I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly , idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital,!”
  • (lb) Excellent, awesome, cool.

    • Derived terms

    * deadly sin

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (obsolete) Fatally, mortally.
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, p.16:
    • perceiving himselfe deadly wounded by a shot received in his body, being by his men perswaded to come off and retire himselfe from out the throng, answered, he would not now so neere his end, begin to turn his face from his enemie
  • In a way which suggests death.
    • Her face suddenly became deadly white.
  • Extremely.
    • deadly weary — Orrery.
    so deadly cunning a man — Arbuthnot.

    Related terms

    * dead