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undead

undead

26 7.6
A creature that died but comes back to life like a zombie or vampire
  • noun
  • /ʌnˈdɛd/
  • Literature
translation icon : no muerto
  • After all, I had brought my children into a menagerie of the Undead.

Zombies, mummies, the undead pursuing them slowly but surely on the spongy earth.

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Examples

  • Initially, I thought Undead were disgusting, but now I think they look cool.

    Blog text (6)
  • I am the one the undead have been waiting for.

  • ...and keep the undead at bay.

  • But then you realize it's an army of the undead, and the army turns out to be zombies.

  • And what if all of those villains became part of the undead?

    Fiction book (1996)
  • His legion of the undead, his true children.

  • The undead surround me.

  • I can't get back because of the insane number of undead that swarm me there.

    Blog text (29)
  • Zombies, mummies, the undead pursuing them slowly but surely on the spongy earth.

  • The villagers were terrified as they stumbled upon a horde of undead rising from their graves.

Synonyms

living dead
vsundead
  • Literature
5 8.6

A dead body that comes back to life like a zombie

focuses on a creature that died and is supernaturally reanimated

How Alive

healthy
695 1.0
living
3.5
undead
  • Literature
26 7.6
corpse
362 4.9
inanimate
11 5.3

Surface Forms

undead singular
undead plural

Morphology

undead = undead (semi-transparent) = un + dead

The noun is a zero-derived use of the adjective 'undead', whose form is transparent, but the supernatural creature sense is specialized rather than a plain 'not dead' meaning.

Etymology

Undead as a noun uses the same parts, un- 'not' and dead, and so it names a being that is 'not dead' in the usual sense. That's why an undead is a creature like a vampire or zombie — someone who died but is supernaturally alive again.