lethality

plural lethalities

1. countableuncountableThe fact of something being lethal; the ability of something to kill.

   In announcing the review, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the new health secretary, said in a statement that “antisemitism — like racism — is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues.”

   2025 March 4, Sharon Otterman, “Trump Threatens Columbia With Millions in Cuts Over Antisemitism Claims”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Mar 2025

   1 more example

   Title 10 section 129a of the US code governing civilian personnel management in the armed forces says that the secretary of defense “may not reduce the civilian workforce programmed full-time equivalent levels unless the Secretary conducts an appropriate analysis” of how those firings could impact the US military’s lethality and readiness.

   2025 February 19, Natasha Bertrand and Haley Britzky, “Defense officials fear impending Pentagon firings could break law and hurt military readiness”, in CNN

2. countableuncountableThe degree of lethal (mortal) danger that something (usually a disease or a weapon) presents; the magnitude of its power to kill organisms exposed to it; this property is indirectly measured by any of various proxy rates, including mortality rate, case fatality rate, or infection fatality rate (for diseases) or kill rate (for weapons, pesticides, or parasites).

   According to the US Environmental Protection Agency [ 6 ], long-chain substituted propanediamines, the chemical group these compounds belongs to, are considered to be toxic to aquatic organisms, with observed lethality for plankton and fish at concentrations ranging from 0.75 to 170 µg L −1 .

   2015 August 29, Pål A. Olsvik et al., “Effects of mining chemicals on fish: exposure to tailings containing Lilaflot D817M induces CYP1A transcription in Atlantic salmon smolt”, in BMC Research Notes, volume 8, →DOI