Mor*tal"i*ty (?), n. [L. mortalitas: cf. F. mortalit'e.]
1.
The condition or quality of being mortal; subjection to death or to the necessity of dying.
When I saw her die,
I then did think on your mortality.
Carew.
2.
Human life; the life of a mortal being.
From this instant
There 's nothing serious in mortality.
Shak.
3.
Those who are, or that which is, mortal; the human cace; humanity; human nature.
Take these tears, mortality's relief.
Pope.
4.
Death; destruction.
Shak.
5.
The whole sum or number of deaths in a given time or a given community; also, the proportion of deaths to population, or to a specific number of the population; death rate; as, a time of great, or low, mortality; the mortality among the settlers was alarming.
Bill of mortality. See under Bill. -- Law of mortality, a mathematical relation between the numbers living at different ages, so that from a given large number of persons alive at one age, it can be computed what number are likely to survive a given number of years. -- Table of mortality, a table exhibiting the average relative number of persons who survive, or who have died, at the end of each year of life, out of a given number supposed to have been born at the same time.
© Webster 1913.