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death toll

death toll

61 3.5
Number of people who have died because of an accident, war, or disaster
  • noun
  • /dɛθ toʊl/
  • Literature
translation icon : número de muertos
  • This was that city's highest daily death toll of the war.
  • rising death toll
  • estimated death toll
  • death toll from AIDS

It's just that the death toll from fossil fuels is less visible.

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Examples

  • Fears of another wave intensify as the worldwide death toll rises.

  • What made swine flu so worrisome was the high death toll it wrought in Mexico.

    Blog text (7)
  • And very unfortunately the the total death toll is still expected to increase.

  • That changes the death toll to 16.

  • The death toll is now up to eight women.

  • The initial death toll will shake world governments to their core.

  • The death toll is still at 53.

  • The final death toll in the Bay Area tragedy: 63 lives.

    Academic text (2010)
  • The death toll is at 144 and still rising.

  • The death toll from the earthquake has now risen to 100 people.

Synonyms

toll
vsdeath toll
207 5.9

The harm or damage an event causes to people and property

is the specific number of people killed rather than general harm
loss of life
vsdeath toll
  • Literature
45 3.5

Deaths of people caused by accidents, disasters, or violence

is the numeric total usually given to show how many people were killed
body count
vsdeath toll
23 5.1

The number of people killed in a battle or attack

is the general number of people killed in accidents or disasters

How Many

mass murder
  • NSFW
38 6.7
death toll
  • Literature
61 3.5
few
1.0
fatality
76 5.7

Surface Forms

death toll singular
death tolls plural

Morphology

death + toll

Given knowledge of 'death' (end of life) and 'toll' (extent of harm/loss or casualties), a B1 learner can readily infer 'death toll' as the number or extent of deaths from an event; the compound is a direct compositional combination. This noun phrase follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern of combining a harm word with 'toll' or equivalent to indicate casualty counts, so the meaning is immediately derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Death toll comes from a simple image long ago: people rang a church bell when someone 'died' and counted the rings. The bell sound was the toll, so the number of rings showed how many had 'died', which is why death toll now means that number.