"matter of life and death" meaning in English

See matter of life and death in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-matter of life and death.ogg [Australia] Forms: matters of life and death [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|matters of life and death}} matter of life and death (plural matters of life and death)
  1. Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death Translations (Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death): kwestie van leven of dood [feminine] (Dutch), elämän ja kuoleman kysymys (Finnish), kysymys elämästä ja kuolemasta (Finnish), question de vie ou de mort [feminine] (French), affaire de vie ou de mort [feminine] (French), 死活問題 (shikatsumondai) (alt: しかつもんだい) (Japanese), 生死にかかわる問題 (seishi ni kakawaru mondai) (alt: せいしにかかわるもんだい) (Japanese), 命にかかわる問題 (inochi ni kakawaru mondai) (alt: いのちにかかわるもんだい) (Japanese), sprawa życia i śmierci [feminine] (Polish), questão de vida ou morte (Portuguese), вопро́с жи́зни и сме́рти (voprós žízni i smérti) [masculine] (Russian), asunto de vida o muerte (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-matter_of_life_and_death-en-noun-CfqfCaLM Disambiguation of "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death": 99 1
  2. (idiomatic) An extremely urgent matter. Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: matter of life or death
    Sense id: en-matter_of_life_and_death-en-noun-NK97sU1K Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 13 87

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for matter of life and death meaning in English (3.8kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "matters of life and death",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "matters of life and death"
      },
      "expansion": "matter of life and death (plural matters of life and death)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death"
      ],
      "id": "en-matter_of_life_and_death-en-noun-CfqfCaLM",
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "kwestie van leven of dood"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "word": "elämän ja kuoleman kysymys"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "word": "kysymys elämästä ja kuolemasta"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "question de vie ou de mort"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "affaire de vie ou de mort"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "alt": "しかつもんだい",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "shikatsumondai",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "word": "死活問題"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "alt": "せいしにかかわるもんだい",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "seishi ni kakawaru mondai",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "word": "生死にかかわる問題"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "alt": "いのちにかかわるもんだい",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "inochi ni kakawaru mondai",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "word": "命にかかわる問題"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "sprawa życia i śmierci"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "word": "questão de vida ou morte"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "voprós žízni i smérti",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "вопро́с жи́зни и сме́рти"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "99 1",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
          "word": "asunto de vida o muerte"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "13 87",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An extremely urgent matter."
      ],
      "id": "en-matter_of_life_and_death-en-noun-NK97sU1K",
      "links": [
        [
          "urgent",
          "urgent"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) An extremely urgent matter."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "13 87",
          "word": "matter of life or death"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-matter of life and death.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/16/En-au-matter_of_life_and_death.ogg/En-au-matter_of_life_and_death.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/En-au-matter_of_life_and_death.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "matter of life and death"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with audio links"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "matters of life and death",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "matters of life and death"
      },
      "expansion": "matter of life and death (plural matters of life and death)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An extremely urgent matter."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "urgent",
          "urgent"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) An extremely urgent matter."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-matter of life and death.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/16/En-au-matter_of_life_and_death.ogg/En-au-matter_of_life_and_death.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/En-au-matter_of_life_and_death.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "matter of life or death"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "kwestie van leven of dood"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "word": "elämän ja kuoleman kysymys"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "word": "kysymys elämästä ja kuolemasta"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "question de vie ou de mort"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "affaire de vie ou de mort"
    },
    {
      "alt": "しかつもんだい",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "shikatsumondai",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "word": "死活問題"
    },
    {
      "alt": "せいしにかかわるもんだい",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "seishi ni kakawaru mondai",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "word": "生死にかかわる問題"
    },
    {
      "alt": "いのちにかかわるもんだい",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "inochi ni kakawaru mondai",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "word": "命にかかわる問題"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "sprawa życia i śmierci"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "word": "questão de vida ou morte"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "voprós žízni i smérti",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "вопро́с жи́зни и сме́рти"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "Something whose outcome could result in either someone's survival or their death",
      "word": "asunto de vida o muerte"
    }
  ],
  "word": "matter of life and death"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.