Definition

Noun: 1. Death personified, the Grim Reaper: A personification or deity representing death, often depicted as a skeletal figure with a scythe, based on mythology and folklore. 2. Death (as a powerful, inevitable force): The abstract, powerful, and inevitable force that ends life.

Usage Examples

• (In many stories, the Grim Reaper often appears in the form of a skeleton holding a scythe.)
• (He escaped from Death's grasp after the critical surgery.)
• (War is the companion of Death.)

Advanced Usage

• "tay/chân/tay sai của tử thần": Literally "the hand/leg/henchman of Death"; used to describe a person, disease, or event that causes death or acts as an agent of death.
  • Căn bệnh nan y ấy chính là tay sai của tử thần. (That incurable disease is a henchman of Death.)
• "đối mặt với tử thần" / "giáp mặt tử thần": To face death, to have a near-death experience.
  • Người lính cứu hỏa đó đã nhiều lần đối mặt với tử thần. (That firefighter has faced Death many times.)

Variants and Related Words

• Thần chết (n): A more colloquial synonym with the same meaning (the god of death, the Death).
• Diêm Vương / Diêm vương (n): Yama, the King of Hell in East Asian mythology, who judges the dead. While related to the afterlife, it is a specific deity rather than the general personification of death.
• Tử thần is a Sino-Vietnamese compound (tử = death, thần = deity/spirit). It is a noun and is not used as a verb or adjective.

Synonyms

• Thần chết (n): The god of death.
• Hắc Ám / Ác Thần (n, poetic): The Darkness / The Evil Deity (when used as a metaphor for death).
• Tử Thần is often translated as "the Grim Reaper" for its personified form and "Death" (capitalized) when referring to the personified force.

Related Idioms

• "Tử thần không chừa một ai": Death spares no one; meaning death is inevitable for everyone.
• "Chạy trốn tử thần": To flee from death; to narrowly escape a deadly situation.

noun

1. The Death