immortality

English

Etymology

From Middle English immortalitee, immortalite, from Old French immortalité, from Latin immortālitās.

Morphologically immortal +‎ -ity

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɪmɔːˈtæləti/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɪmɔːɹˈtæləti/

Noun

immortality (countable and uncountable, plural immortalities)

1. (religion, mythology, biology) The condition of being immortal.
   1. Never dying

      In Greek mythology, Tithonus was granted immortality but not eternal youth.

      • 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Marriage Morning”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , →OCLC, page 201:

        In the little, as in the great things of life, are to be found the type and sign of our immortality. Every hope that looks forward is pledge of the hereafter to which it refers. Who rests content with the present? None. We have all deep within us a craving for the future.

      • 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 4:

        His one desire was to become the father of a man like himself, and it held him with a grip he only partially understood, for it was the first great desire, the first great passion of his life. Falling in love was a mere physical triviality, like warm sun or cool water, beside this divine hope of immortality: "I continue."

   2. Being remembered forever
      • 2018 May 4, Tom English, “Steven Gerrard: A 'seriously clever or recklessly stupid' Rangers appointment”, in BBC Sport‎:

        You have to salute Gerrard's bravery in accepting the challenge of trying to turn Rangers around given that he has zero experience in senior management. Immortality beckons if he does it.

Synonyms

• (never dying): undeadliness; see also Thesaurus:immortality

Derived terms

• biological immortality
• quantum immortality

Related terms

• immortal
• mortality

Translations

See also

• elixir of life
• undead
• immortality on Wikipedia.Wikipedia