English Words Starting With D

• death house

  nounC2
  /ˈdeθ ˌhaʊs/A building or section of a prison where prisoners sentenced to death are confined before execution.
• death in venice

  nounLow
  /ˌdeθ ɪn ˈvenɪs/The title of a 1912 novella by German author Thomas Mann.
• death instinct

  nounC2
  /ˈdɛθ ˌɪn.stɪŋkt/A psychoanalytic concept proposing an innate, unconscious drive towards self-destruction, aggression, or a return to an inorganic state.
• death knell

  nounB2/C1
  /ˈdeθ ˌnel/A bell rung slowly to mark someone's death; a sign or event that signals the impending end or failure of something.
• death mask

  nounC1-C2
  /ˈdeθ ˌmɑːsk/A cast taken from a person's face shortly after death, typically made of plaster or wax.
• death match

  nounLow-medium (Common in gaming/tech contexts; rare in formal/general discourse)
  /ˈdeθ ˌmætʃ/A competition, contest, or fight (often virtual or in games) in which the participants engage until only one survives or wins; a battle with extremely high stakes.
• death metal

  nounC1
  /ˈdeθ ˌmetl/An extreme subgenre of heavy metal music, characterised by heavily distorted guitars, blast-beat drumming, deep growled or screamed vocals (death growls), and dark lyrical themes exploring death, violence, and the macabre.
• death of a salesman

  nounMedium (as a cultural reference)
  /ˈdɛθ əv ə ˈseɪlzmən/The title of Arthur Miller's 1949 play, a tragedy about Willy Loman, a failing traveling salesman, and his family.
• death of ivan ilyich, the

  nounMedium (commonly referenced in literary, academic, and cultural discussions)
  /ðə ˌdeθ əv ɪˌvɑːn ɪˈljiːɪtʃ/A novella by Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1886, widely regarded as a masterpiece of Russian literature.
• death penalty

  nounC1-C2
  /ˈdeθ ˌpen.əl.ti/The legally authorized punishment of executing someone convicted of a serious crime, typically murder.
• death rate

  nounHigh (C1-C2 vocabulary, frequent in formal/technical contexts)
  /ˈdeθ ˌreɪt/The number of deaths in a particular population, area, or during a specific period, typically expressed per 1000 people per year.
• death rattle

  nounLow frequency (C2)
  /ˈdɛθ ˌræt(ə)l/The gurgling or rattling sound sometimes produced by a dying person's respiratory system as air passes through accumulating fluid.
• death ray

  nounC2 - Mastery/Proficient
  /ˈdeθ ˌreɪ/A fictional directed-energy weapon capable of killing at a distance, popular in early science fiction.
• death row

  nounC1
  /ˈdeθ ˌrəʊ/The section of a prison where inmates who have been sentenced to death are held while awaiting execution.
• death seat

  nounLow (colloquial idiom, not common in formal discourse)
  /ˈdeθ ˌsiːt/The front passenger seat of a motor vehicle, statistically the most dangerous position for a passenger in certain types of collisions.
• death sentence

  nounmedium
  /ˈdɛθ ˌsɛntəns/A judicial ruling condemning a person to death as punishment for a crime.
• death spiral

  nounC1/C2
  /ˈdeθ ˌspaɪ.rəl/A situation of irreversible, self-reinforcing decline where negative events compound, leading to catastrophic failure.
• death squad

  nounLow
  /ˈdɛθ ˌskwɒd/A military or paramilitary group that secretly carries out extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, and intimidation.
• death tax

  nounLow
  /ˈdɛθ ˌtæks/A tax levied on the property of a deceased person before it is passed on to their heirs.
• death tourist

  nounLow frequency; specialist/niche term
  /ˈdeθ ˌtʊə.rɪst/A person who travels specifically to visit places associated with death, tragedy, or disaster.

Showing 981–1000 of 7181 words.