Mortalness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of being subject to death, meaning that every living being must eventually die and cease to exist
2. The quality of belonging to a creature that is destined to die sooner or later rather than living forever
3. Human or living existence understood as finite, the inescapable fact that life comes to an end

Etymology: Mortalness is one of those words where the history is plain: it is a straightforward combination of two existing English elements. "Mortal" came into English from Latin "mortalis", meaning "subject to death", built from "mors" (death). The suffix "-ness" is the native Old English ending that turns an adjective into a noun naming the quality it describes, so mortalness is simply the state or condition of being mortal. The pattern is ordinary for English, which has long attached "-ness" to adjectives borrowed from Latin and French, producing pairs like "happiness" or "kindness" alongside newer formations. Mortalness belongs to that group and is less common than its near-synonym "mortality", which entered English from Latin "mortalitas" and tends to be used for both the general condition and for death rates.

Synonyms: mortality, humanity

Antonyms: immortality, immortalness