lethal
/ˈliː.θəl/adjective, noun
lethal is spelled L-E-T-H-A-L. The wrong spelling people search most is leathal: about 70 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 17 of all searches for the word. Lethal is an adjective meaning “Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal”.
How many letters and syllables are in lethal?
| Letters | 6: L-E-T-H-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 7.2 times per million words; the 8,784th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, leathal, about 70 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell lethal?
Lethal is spelled L-E-T-H-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 17 of the searches for lethal in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is lethal?
Lethal appears 7.2 times per million words in written English, the 8,784th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce lethal?
- /ˈliː.θəl/
Lethal has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-lethal.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of lethal
- more lethal comparative
- most lethal superlative
- lethals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lethal mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal.
noun
- 1
Any weapon that causes death.
- 2
An allele that causes the death of the organism that carries it.
- 3
One of the higher alcohols of the paraffine series obtained from spermaceti as a white crystalline solid.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lethal in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of, pertaining to, or causing death; deadly; mortal; fatal:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | létal, léthal, mortel, fatal |
| German | tödlich, letal |
| Portuguese | fatal, letal, mortal |
| Spanish | letal |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does lethal come from?
Learned borrowing from Latin lētālis (“deadly, mortal, fatal”), improperly written lēthālis, from lētum (“death”), improperly written as lēthum, from a supposed connection with Ancient Greek λήθη (lḗthē, “oblivion, forgetfulness”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).