Dead means no longer alive. When a plant, animal, or person dies, we say it is dead. A dead tree has no leaves and won't grow anymore. A dead battery in a flashlight has no power left and won't make the bulb light up.

The word also describes things that have stopped working or lost their energy. A dead end is a street that doesn't go anywhere, forcing you to turn around. When a phone line goes dead, you can't hear anything because the connection stopped working. If a party or classroom is described as dead, it means quiet and lifeless, with no energy or excitement.

Sometimes dead means complete or total. A dead stop means stopping completely, not just slowing down. Dead center means exactly in the middle. When someone makes a joke that gets no response, they might say it landed in dead silence.

People use many expressions with this word: dead tired means exhausted, dead wrong means completely incorrect, and dead serious means not joking at all. If you say someone is a dead ringer for another person, you mean they look exactly alike, as if they could be twins.