# death zone

> English word · Noun

## Definitions
1. An area of land at sufficiently high altitudes in which there is not enough oxygen to sustain human life.

## Etymology
Coined by Swiss physician and alpinist Edouard Wyss-Dunant in 1953 as lethal zone.

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