immortal

Word family

• immortality
  nounB2
• immortalize
  verbB2
• mortal
  adjectiveB2
• mortal
  nounB2
• mortality
  nounB2
• mortally
  adverbC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Immortal literally means 'not subject to death' and applies most naturally to living beings — gods, mythical creatures, or souls. Eternal describes something that has no beginning or end in time, making it broader than simply lacking death; it is often used for abstract concepts like love or truth. Everlasting emphasises continuous duration without stopping and appears frequently with hope, fame, or memory ('everlasting peace'). Undying is more emotional and typically modifies abstract nouns such as gratitude, loyalty, or love ('undying devotion'), and is almost never used literally of living things. Deathless is the rarest of the four and almost always figurative, as in 'deathless prose' — it can sound poetic or slightly ironic in modern use. A simple guide: if you mean a being that cannot die, use immortal; if you mean a feeling that never fades, use undying; if you mean something that continues forever in time, use eternal or everlasting.

Common collocations

Etymology

Immortal comes from the Latin word immortālis, a combination of the prefix in- (meaning 'not') and mortālis (meaning 'mortal, subject to death'). Mortālis itself comes from mors ('death'). The word entered English through Old French in the 14th century, first used in religious and mythological contexts to describe gods and souls that could not die, and later extended to describe enduring fame.