thanato-, thanat-, thanas-, -thanasia, -thanasic, -thanatous +

A specialist in the study of death.

1. The scientific study of death, its causes and phenomena.
2. The study of the effects of approaching death and of the needs of the terminally ill and their families.
3. The study of death and its effect on individuals and families.
4. In forensic medicine, the study of the circumstances under which death occurred, especially as they relate to the production of postmortem phenomena.
5. The medicolegal study of death and conditions affecting dead bodies.

1. An abnormal obsession with death or suicidal mania.
2. Death by means of autosuggestion.
3. An illness or death resulting from a belief in the efficacy of magic, a phenomenon observed among those primitive societies, or illiterate and superstitious people; who believe in the power of evil spirits, spells, curses, and control over one's bodily processes, with such belief and resulting fear manifesting itself as psychosomatic illness and even death.

Of or pertaining to divination concerning death.

A thermometer used to prove the occurrence of death by registering the reduction of bodily temperature.

A morbid contemplation of death.

Venomous snakes that cause death.

A reference to poisonous snakes the bites of which result in death.

A division of Ophidia, comprising the venomous snakes.

One who specializes in the study of venomous snakes.

An unusual fascination with death.

An unwarranted and morbid dread of death or of dying: People afflicted with thanatophobia are afraid to use the normal expressions of "death", "dying", or "died", so they use such euphemisms as "passing on", "passing away", or even "going to one's reward".

There are also those who have a dread regarding the act of deceasing because it is the ultimate unknown factor or because a loved one will be missed very much.

It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.

—Woody Allen, American film maker

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We all labor against our own cure,
even though death is the cure of all diseases.

—Thomas Browne

1. A morbid fear of death or of dying.
2. An unwarranted apprehension of imminent death or a morbid dread of the subject of death or of dying.

1. Deadly; lethal; leading to death.
2. Applied to a form of dwarfism that results in death.

A lethal dwarfism characterized by micromelia (condition of having disproportionately short or small limbs), bowed long bones, enlarged head, flattened vertebral bodies, and muscular hypotonia; lack of pulmonary ventilation causes respiratory difficulties with cyanosis (a bluish discoloration due to excessive concentration of reduced hemoglobin in the blood) leading to death within the first few hours or days after birth.

A severe form of neonatal dwarfism with very short limbs.

All cases have died at birth or in the neonatal period (first four weeks after birth).