What is the Latin word for dead?

The usual Latin words for “dead” are morior, exanimis, inanimus; also exsanguis, languidus, ēmorior. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

English → Latin

“dead” in Latin

moriorto die, be slain, fall (in battle), perish; to decay, wither exanimisdead, lifeless; breathless, as if near death, resulting from fear or terror; fainting; terrified, dismayed inanimuslifeless, inanimate exsanguisDeprived of blood, without or lacking in blood; bloodless.; Pale, wan.; Powerless, feeble, weak, exhausted.languidusfaint, weak; dull, languid; sluggish, slow ēmoriorto die; to die off; to die out praemoriorto die prematurely intermoriorto die in secret, or unobserved; to decay or become neglected; to faint fūnusfuneral; death; dead body, corpse

Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864

dead

mortuus (☞ in classical prose never defunctus): exanimis; exanimus (when life is gone): inanimus, inanimis (without life; inanimate, opposed to animate; animal): vita et sensu carens (naturally without life and feeling): exsanguis (without blood; the blood having ceased to circulate; also figuratively; e.g., genus orationis): a dead body, mortuus, funus (a corpse). Almost dead, prope exsanguis; intermortuus: the kingdom of the dead, inferi: to rise from the dead, ab inferis exsistere: to raise from the dead, ab inferis excitare, or revocare; a morte ad vitam revocare: to strike dead, plagam mortiferam infligere alicui (Cic., in Vat. 8, 20. where it is figuratively, ): to be struck dead by lightning, ictu fulminis deflagrare (Cic.). It is said that such a person is dead, mortuus esse aliquis dicitur or nunciatur. He is a dead man, actum est de aliquo: I am a dead man, perii, occidi, nullus sum: to be half dead with laughing, risu paene emori: the city is like a city of the dead, *ingens solitudo est in urbe; *vastum in tota urbe silentium est (a dead silence).

ImPROP., mortuus (that has died away; e.g., carbones; natura; also mare; and = no longer in use; e.g., leges, lingua, Cic.): languidus (feeble; unimpressive; e.g., imago, colores): emortuus (quite dead; e.g., membrum, carbo): praemortuus (before its time; e.g., limbs: also figuratively vires): intermortuus (of what has lost its brilliancy; opposed to exardescere: also of what has wholly disappeared, Catilinae reliquiae; memoria generis): dead capital, pecuniae otiosae, vacuae, or steriles: his capital lies dead, pecuniae otiosae jacent: vapidus; saporis expers; infirmi saporis (of liquors): dead sleep, *somnus morti similis; *sopor morti simillimus. I lay in a dead sleep, somnus artissimus me complexus est (Cic., Somn. Scip., 1): tam gravi somno premor. ut nullo modo excitari queam (Plin., 8, 36, 54, § 127): dead water, aqua stagnans; aqua pigra; stagnum: dead flesh, caro hebes. Dead colors, colores languidi, fusci, non laeti: a dead silence, altum silentium. The ears are dead, frigidae languidaeque aures (Cels.). A dead language, lingua mortua (after leges mortuae, Cic.) or *lingua, quae ex vita et consuetudine communi abiit; *lingua ex usu communi remota; *lingua solis litterarum monumentis servata (Wyttenback). A dead calm, tanta malacia ac tranquillitas, ut se ex loco movere non possint (sc. naves, Caes.): dead drunk, vino sepultus: a dead lift, res desperatae, or perditae, or perditae et desperatae, desperatio rerum: to help a man at a dead lift, (haerentem) aliquem expedire.

In the dead of the night, nocte intempesta.

Quick answer

What is the Latin word for dead?: The usual Latin words for “dead” are morior, exanimis, inanimus; also exsanguis, languidus, ēmorior. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.

Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.