mortify

/ˈmɔːtɪfaɪ//ˈmɔɹtɪfaɪ/
🟣 Advanced

Word Statistics

Difficulty LevelAdvanced

Academic vocabulary

Word FrequencyCommon

Regularly used in writing and speech

Syllables3

Moderate complexity

Analysis:

  • Academic vocabulary
  • Latin or Greek origin pattern
  • Standard complexity
verb

1. To discipline (one's body, appetites etc.) by suppressing desires; to practise abstinence on.

"Some people seek sainthood by mortifying the body."

2. (usually used passively) To embarrass, to humiliate. To injure one's dignity.

"I was so mortified I could have died right there; instead I fainted, but I swore I'd never let that happen to me again."

3. To kill.

4. To reduce the potency of; to nullify; to deaden, neutralize.

5. To kill off (living tissue etc.); to make necrotic.

6. To affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress.

7. To grant in mortmain.

8. To lose vitality.

9. To gangrene.

10. To be subdued.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Want richer context for the words you save? Open the storytelling blueprints inside PromptForge or dip into the daily creative challenges from PromptCraft to put fresh vocabulary to work immediately.