# deadly

> English word · Adjective · IPA /ˈdɛdli/ · frequency rank #5,489

## Definitions
1. Subject to death; mortal.
2. Causing death; lethal.
3. Aiming or willing to destroy; implacable; desperately hostile.
4. Very accurate (of aiming with a bow, firearm, etc.).
5. Very boring.
6. Excellent, awesome, cool.

## Etymology
From Middle English dedly, dedlych, dedlich, from Old English dēadlīċ (adjective), from Proto-West Germanic *dauþalīk, from Proto-Germanic *dauþalīkaz (“deadly”, literally “deathly”). By surface analysis, dead + -ly. Cognate with Saterland Frisian dodelk (“deadly”), West Frisian deadlik (“deadly”), Dutch dodelijk (“deadly”), German tödlich (“deadly”), Swedish dödlig (“deadly, fatal, mortal”), Icelandic dauðlegur (“mortal”).
The adverb is from Middle English dedliche, from Old English dēadlīċe (adverb), from the adjective.

## Easily confused with
- **deal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/deadly-vs-deal)
- **deals** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/deadly-vs-deals)
- **dealt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/deadly-vs-dealt)
- **deeply** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/deadly-vs-deeply)
- **dearly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/deadly-vs-dearly)
- **deftly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/deadly-vs-deftly)
- **deathly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/deadly-vs-deathly)
- **dead** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dead-vs-deadly)
- **Daly** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/daly-vs-deadly)
- **daily** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/daily-vs-deadly)
- **daddy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/daddy-vs-deadly)
- **dally** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/dally-vs-deadly)

## Common misspellings (9)
`daedly`, `ddeadly`, `deaddly`, `deadlly`, `deadlyy`, `deadyl`, `dealdy`, `dedaly`, `edadly`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/deadly