What does immortal mean?
Word: Immortal
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Immortal means living for ever and never dying; also, famous and remembered for ever.
Synonyms: undying, eternal
Antonyms: mortal
How do you spell immortal?
Syllables: im - mor - tal
Tricky part: There are two m's together near the start, and students often write only one.
Watch out for: imortal, emortal
Memory tip: Picture two mountains standing side by side for ever: like them, the two m's of immortal never part.
Idioms and Phrases
- in the immortal words of: used before quoting a famous saying, often as a joke Example: "In the immortal words of my grandmother, a clean kitchen is a happy kitchen."
Immortal in a sentence
Example 1: In the fairy tale, the wizard searched for a magic drink to become immortal.
Example 2: The Beatles' songs have made the band immortal for millions of listeners.
Example 3: No living thing is immortal, but some trees live for thousands of years.
Fun Fact
A tiny sea creature, Turritopsis dohrnii, is nicknamed the immortal jellyfish because, when it is old or hurt, it can turn itself back into a young polyp and start its life again.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Three words in the list are spelt correctly and one is not. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. immortal 2. legend 3. mythalogy 4. ancestor
a) never dying, or remembered for all time
b) the old traditional stories of a people
c) a family member who lived long ago
d) a famous old story that may not be true
Show answer
b) the old traditional stories of a people. Mythalogy has an a where an o belongs before the l; legend, immortal and ancestor are spelt correctly.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word immortal as used in the sentence:
Shakespeare's plays have proved immortal, still performed more than four centuries after he wrote them.
a) forgotten
b) everlasting
c) popular
d) ancient
Show answer
b) everlasting. Plays still alive after so long are everlasting; ancient only says they are old.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The folk singers of our village believe that their old songs are immortel and will still be sung a thousand years from now.
a) singers
b) immortel
c) village
d) thousand
Show answer
b) immortel. Like total and metal, the word ends in -tal.
Mingle-Mangle
Unscramble the jumbled word in the sentence and choose it:
Grandma says Aesop's fables are rmlmtoia, because children all over the world still read them.
a) mortally
b) memorial
c) immortal
d) immoral
Show answer
c) immortal. Immoral is a letter short, mortally needs a y, and memorial has an e: only immortal uses every letter.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Calling a poet's lines immortal is a way of saying they ____.
a) will still be quoted centuries from now
b) were first sung at a royal wedding
c) were written down very quickly
d) are too hard for children to read
Show answer
a) will still be quoted centuries from now
2. In the fairy tale, the giants who lived on the mountain were immortal, meaning the giants ____.
a) would go on living for all time
b) had to obey human kings
c) could never leave the mountain
d) spoke every language on earth
Show answer
a) would go on living for all time
