How to Use life-and-death in a Sentence

life-and-death

adjective

• That was a life-and-death matter during the Cedar fire.
  — Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Oct. 2023
• The life-and-death drama played out in the heart of country music.
  — Keith Sharon, USA TODAY, 2 Sep. 2024
• What about life-and-death situations out on the streets?
  — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 19 June 2023
• Between the frigid cold and circling wolves below, the trio make life-and-death decisions to survive.
  — Keith Langston, Peoplemag, 24 Nov. 2023
• Taveras said the bill has life-and-death consequences for children and drivers involved in school bus crashes.
  — Thomas Goodwin Smith, Baltimore Sun, 14 Feb. 2024
• These are life-and-death stakes, sure, but watching Yen zip through the kitchen dispatching goon after goon telegraphs a chaotic joy, with roots in the Great Stone Face bits of the silent era.
  — Jordan Crucchiola, Vulture, 4 Mar. 2024
• What is certain, however, is that the Middle colonies and South Carolina were left with a life-and-death decision to make.
  — Time, 3 July 2023
• Unaware of the life-and-death drama unfolding just feet from them, his parents were relaxing upstairs on the couch.
  — Michael Collins, USA TODAY, 12 June 2023
• Then, the staff got to work picking the ones that best encapsulated the uncertainty and life-and-death feelings of that moment.
  — Erik Ortiz, NBC News, 30 Aug. 2023
• That necessities come first makes sense: These items can make a life-and-death difference in moments of crisis.
  — Ayurella Horn-Muller, The Atlantic, 30 Dec. 2023
• These include sustaining a crucial vow of silence plus life-and-death trials by fire and water.
  — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times, 9 Mar. 2023
• Drug discovery — that, of course, is very important, with life-and-death consequences.
  — Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 7 Nov. 2024
• So in the ’80s, the death penalty was a place where the Supreme Court started making these orders that decided life-and-death situations for people on death row.
  — Vox Staff, Vox, 5 June 2024
• And yet the bad boy has long been a trope of popular culture, particularly in a genre when the differences between bad and good are heightened to life-and-death stakes.
  — Eliana Dockterman, TIME, 3 July 2024
• Energy reliability is a life-and-death issue in the heat of the summer.
  — Russ Wiles, The Arizona Republic, 9 July 2024
• But in a war, deepfakes can be used to sow confusion with potentially life-and-death consequences.
  — Vivienne Walt, Fortune, 4 Dec. 2023
• Quick life-and-death decisions sometimes must be made based on incomplete data, and current gen AI models are still too opaque.
  — Frank Bajak, Fortune, 23 May 2024
• The clashing of swords against one another adds suspense as beloved or infamous characters engage in life-and-death battles on screen.
  — Marina Johnson, Detroit Free Press, 3 May 2023
• If the unthinkable became a horrifying reality, if a life-and-death teeter-totter or crushing financial pressure pushed them to the brink, the teen would shoulder the weight of the world.
  — Bryce Millercolumnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Feb. 2023
• Game controllers have been used in life-and-death situations in combat, and likely will continue to be used in those scenarios for the foreseeable future.
  — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 22 June 2023
• Healthcare workers and anyone in any industry that deals with life-and-death situations have higher stressors in their daily jobs.
  — Hanna Kang, Orange County Register, 20 Jan. 2024
• At least until a second group of survivors also appeared and told a very different story about what had happened aboard the Wager—one that would lead to life-and-death stakes for one group, if only it could be discerned who was telling the truth.
  — The Editors, townandcountrymag.com, 4 Apr. 2023
• My only real complaint was the subplot where a character spent a couple of episodes locked in a dungeon, but even that felt something of a piece with the rest of a show that does well balancing life-and-death action with quirky comedy.
  — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 14 Mar. 2024
• Scientists have also suspected that those species’ role is so important that their loss could have life-and-death consequences for human beings.
  — Dylan Scott, Vox, 2 Aug. 2024
• The townspeople’s friendships, romances, and enmities are tangible ways to understand what’s going on here, and their complex bonds help amplify the show’s life-and-death stakes.
  — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2024
• The eye-popping figure reflects both the high cost of litigation and the fact the crypto world is in a life-and-death struggle with the SEC, whose chairman has adopted a relentlessly hostile posture towards the industry.
  — Jeff John Roberts, Fortune Crypto, 21 Sep. 2023
• The party’s increasingly draconian efforts to control history prove the potency of this insurgency, which Xi sees as a life-and-death struggle that the party must win at all costs.
  — Ian Johnson, Foreign Affairs, 19 Dec. 2023
• There are all the hallmarks of the Spanish master: sumptuous interiors splashed with vibrant colors; rich, wordy roles for layered female characters; life-and-death stakes woven into the fabric of the everyday.
  — Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 29 Sep. 2024
• Executives credit this success to the universal themes of growing up, when everything, including first kisses, high school dances and sports competitions, feels life-and-death.
  — Gary Coronado, Los Angeles Times, 24 Feb. 2023
• Individuals answering survey questions for a small reward will act more blithely than state leaders making life-and-death choices for their country.
  — Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2023

Last Updated: 17 Feb 2025