LETHALITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lethality mean? 

• LETHALITY (noun)
  The noun LETHALITY has 1 sense:

1. the quality of being deadly

  Familiarity information: LETHALITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LETHALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of being deadly

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

deadliness; lethality

Hypernyms ("lethality" is a kind of...):

morbidity; morbidness; unwholesomeness (the quality of being unhealthful and generally bad for you)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lethality"):

fatality (the quality of being able to cause death or fatal disasters)

Derivation:

lethal (of an instrument of certain death)

 Context examples 

The enzyme inhibits the viral replication of several virion species; however, the lethality of human T-cell leukemia virus type I may exhibit resistance to the activity of this enzyme.

(DNA dC to dU-Editing Enzyme APOBEC-3G, NCI Thesaurus)

Disruption of the Nkx2-5 gene in mice leads to embryonic lethality and defective cardiac development.

(HOP Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

Erastin analogue PRLX 93936 exhibits greater lethality in cell lines harboring mutations in the GTPase protein oncogenes HRAS and KRAS or the serine-threonine protein kinase oncogene BRAF than in non-tumorigenic cell lines.

(Erastin Analogue PRLX 93936, NCI Thesaurus)

Even with successful antibiotic treatment, anthrax toxins can remain in the circulation and cause lethality.

(Anthrax Toxin Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

The unprecedented lethality of a single disease affecting an entire vertebrate class highlights the threat from the spread of novel pathogens in a globalized world.

(Deadly fungal disease ‘caused greatest biodiversity loss ever recorded’, SciDev.Net)

The reasons for difference in disease severity and lethality caused by seasonal influenza viruses on the one hand, and pandemic and highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses on the other hand is still poorly understood.

('Significant breakthrough' in understanding the deadly nature of pandemic influenza, University of Cambridge )