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Is there a term for immortality that only prevents death from old age? For example, the elves from The Lord of the Rings are "immortal", but only to the effects of dying from age. They can still be killed from wounds. So they are technically not immortal. In fact, the use of the term "immortal" permeates many facets of Science Fiction & Fantasy lore in a similar context (Justice League and Dungeons & Dragons come to mind).

Is there a more fitting term for this kind of longevity, perhaps used by other Sci-Fi/Fantasy works of which I am not aware? Specifically, I am looking for a term either from actual science or Sci-Fi/Fantasy that dictates the state of growing to maturity, and then no longer suffering from aging or be capable of dying to the effects of aging while still maintaining vulnerability to wounds.

SeeDerekEngineer
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  • Are you asking if there's a word specific to LOTR or if there's a word in the English language that describes this? – Valorum Feb 15 '19 at 21:16
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    Although this looks like it may be a better fit on English Language/English Learners (which one has single word requests?), immortality is very much a SF thing and we have such "terms" questions. As per the "unclear" part, it appears LOTR is only given as an example, although a Tolkien-word for it might be a nice addition to an answer. TLDR: voted to leave open. – Jenayah Feb 15 '19 at 21:42
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    To quote Wikipedia, Immortal beings and species abound in fiction, especially fantasy fiction, and the meaning of "immortal" tends to vary. – gowenfawr Feb 15 '19 at 21:52
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    @Valorum truth be told, I (myself, not speaking for anyone else nor judging) wouldn't take any enjoyment in answering in such a way, but I still do think this is somewhat on-topic for the site, although not the "best question evah" – Jenayah Feb 15 '19 at 22:50
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    @Jenayah - The question "What word in LOTR describes the Elves immortality" would be fine on the site. The question "Is there a word in the English language that describes non-aging" would also be fine, but not here. – Valorum Feb 15 '19 at 23:05
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    No one "most correct answer" and all that. – FuzzyBoots Feb 16 '19 at 04:25
  • I can't answer because my rep is too low on this site, but "immortal but not invincible" seems to fit the bill. Feel free to use it as an answer someone :-) I found this discussion on Reddit about immortality vs invulnerability. – ProgrammingLlama Feb 18 '19 at 04:19
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    Nitpicking, but elves in LOTR doesn't even really die at all. When they die they (their souls) simple get into different part of the world, to Valinor, where they wait in Halls of Mandos till the end of the world. And they even may come back to living, like Glorfindel. Rest of the races of this universe die completely and without turning back, and unless they did something horrible and are bound to existence as ghosts, their spirits leave the Eä forever. – user28434 Feb 18 '19 at 11:29
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    Usually that's precisely what "immortality" means. Not being killable by wounds would be "invincibility". "I'm immortal, not invincible". I would have made this an answer if the question wasn't protected. – Kapten-N Feb 18 '19 at 13:09
  • I've seen the process of becoming this way referred to as "methuselization" (from the biblical Methuselah). – spume Feb 18 '19 at 15:06
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    The question is still completely ot, and while SF.se mods usually tend to bend and twist every question so to be able to fit the site, this one time the thing is so silly. No matter how many ties you put to it, but the question is about English language and should be asked on English.SE And because things are not screwed enough, the accepted and most voted answer list two terms who are not used in SF, but are instead common in biology. In SF the word for "not aging" is Immortality, as it's the common English word for it. But I guess all here saw the biology documentary Higlanders, uh? – motoDrizzt Feb 19 '19 at 09:21
  • The German Perry Rhodan series used to call this "relative immortality" (which IMO sounds just as awkward now as 40 years ago when I first read the term). – Eike Pierstorff Feb 19 '19 at 09:26
  • @motoDrizzt, I see your point. My original purpose was how to describe the term for a fantasy/sci-fi setting. All the answers below, scientific and not, help frame that. Therefore, I removed the accepted answer, but will maintain this belongs here, as English.SE would not give the SciFi/Fantasy terms as answers, which lessens the quality of the post's answer as a whole. – SeeDerekEngineer Feb 22 '19 at 04:29
  • I remember the term "emmortal" for this concept, used in one book/series. Unfortunately, I forget the book itself. – NomadMaker Jul 11 '21 at 06:16
  • "Post mortal" (from a book of the same name by Drew McGarry). Old age won't kill you, but anything else still can. – Emsley Wyatt Jul 11 '21 at 14:37

10 Answers10

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Negligible senescence largely fits the bill.

Negligible senescence is a term coined by biogerontologist Caleb Finch to denote organisms that do not exhibit evidence of senescence (biological aging), such as measurable reductions in their reproductive capability, measurable functional decline, or rising death rates with age.

Biological immortality is the more extreme version.

Biological immortality (sometimes referred to bio-indefinite mortality) is a state in which the rate of mortality from senescence is stable or decreasing, thus decoupling it from chronological age. Various unicellular and multicellular species, including some vertebrates, achieve this state either throughout their existence or after living long enough. A biologically immortal living being can still die from means other than senescence, such as through injury or disease.

FuzzyBoots
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    Came here to post this. +1 for science facts! – ApproachingDarknessFish Feb 16 '19 at 08:05
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    This seems to be the most correct answer: a term which means exactly what the OP is looking for (not something vague/ambiguous like "ageless" or "eternal") and which isn't restricted to a single work or subgenre of SFF. – Rand al'Thor Feb 16 '19 at 10:59
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    "The Postmortal" by Drew Magary postulated a formula that would, when taken, basically freeze you at your current age. You could, however, still be killed by violence or even disease. – Emsley Wyatt Feb 16 '19 at 22:45
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    Because we all watched the movies about Connor MacLeod the negligibly senescencent, and we read about Elrond the biologically immortal, and the ancient Greeks were all warm and fuzzy for Zeus, the negligibly senescencent god of Olympus... – motoDrizzt Feb 19 '19 at 09:32
  • @motoDrizzt: I see your point. And my answer may be on the side of "providing a scientific explanation". :) – FuzzyBoots Feb 20 '19 at 17:37
  • @FuzzyBoots your answer is not answering the question. I quote: "Specifically, I am looking for a term used in any Sci-Fi or Fantasy" – motoDrizzt Feb 20 '19 at 20:16
  • @motoDrizzt: Well, not since they changed their question, at least. :) Originally, it was just "perhaps a term used in any Sci-Fi or Fantasy", which was what I answered. – FuzzyBoots Feb 20 '19 at 20:48
  • @motoDrizzt The fact that this answer is accepted is a very good indication that it does, in fact, answer the question. I've edited the question to remove the phrase that would seem to invalidate this answer. – Null Feb 20 '19 at 21:19
  • @Null good, ok. So now, after the edit the question is completely off topic for this stack -it's a question about English language with an accepted answer about biology. Care to delete it, or I have to flag it again? – motoDrizzt Feb 21 '19 at 09:34
  • @motoDrizzt The question still contains the clause "perhaps used by other Sci-Fi/Fantasy works", which means it's on-topic even if the answer is that there is no other sci-fi/fantasy work that provides an alternate term and we can only use a term from the real world. Even if you think the question is off-topic that doesn't mean that this accepted answer doesn't answer it -- it just means you should try to close the question. – Null Feb 21 '19 at 15:08
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"ageless" would work as it means: something (or someone) that does not look or appear to grow older

Elrond's face is described as ageless (lotr, many meetings)

Pliny
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    "Ageless" typically describes appearance and can still apply to beings that do age. I don't think that's a good fit. – isanae Feb 16 '19 at 04:23
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    -1 for being a poor answer to the question. "Ageless" doesn't (usually) literally mean someone who can't age. Someone's face may appear ageless (they're not showing the effects of their age), but that's not a sci-fi/fantasy concept. Immortality is. – Rand al'Thor Feb 16 '19 at 09:15
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    @Randal'Thor - While being ageless (or more commonly the lesser reference of "appearing ageless") can be used in non- scifi/fantasy contexts, when used in a scifi/fantasy context it does tend to mean what Garret Gang describes - that one exists without (dramatic) aging, without dying of natural causes, but one is still able to be killed by violence, etc. And it is usually pretty clear in a given story which context the term is used in, scifi/fantasy or not. This was actually the answer I came up with when I read the question. – Megha Feb 17 '19 at 03:28
  • Ageless is an adjective. The question was asking about a term for immortality/longevity, indicating a noun. Even before I read this answer, the first word that popped into my head was "agelessness". – TOOGAM Feb 18 '19 at 00:07
  • @isanae in the Dark Tower though Walter is referred to as Ageless Stranger and he does fit the description is the question, i.e. immortal unless killed – Nikita Neganov Feb 19 '19 at 09:37
  • Tolkien's elves were also described as "immortal". However that may also have been a reference to what happened after they "died", which was different from men. – Paul Johnson Feb 19 '19 at 11:35
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    Whoie I agree with Rand AL Thor that ageless when used to describe someone outside of science fiction/fantasy merely means they do not look old. I feel that inside of the realm of science fi/fantasy the term generally refers to a race, or person who does not age. And I feel this use of the term was inspired by Tolkien work, though upon rereading the chapter, I think he used it to mean that elronds face was neither young nor old, giving no indication to his actual age. – Pliny Feb 24 '19 at 00:09
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Undying is a term that refers specifically to a state of never being in a process of dying (such as Tolkien's Undying Lands), and applies mainly to life, rather than ideas, art, or appearance. It does not necessarily mean being immune to being killed or destroyed, but rather to not being subject to life's usual condition of growing progressively closer to death.

It also does not necessarily mean being immune to some form of change due to aging (for the better or for the worse); it does, however, mean being immune to death from aging.

Misha R
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    Note: Undying may be confused with, or used interchangeably with, undead, which typically refers to reanimated dead (e.g. zombies). – NotThatGuy Feb 16 '19 at 12:41
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    @NotThatGuy Maybe, although I doubt it. Could perhaps be true for very young readers. But I have never seen "undying" used that way or confused with "undead." Additionally, "undead" is such a well-established term that a deviation from it would be more likely to emphasize that you don't mean "undead." – Misha R Feb 16 '19 at 17:44
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Turning to roleplaying games, GURPS uses "Unkillable" for "immune to death by violence" and "Unaging" for "never growing older once mature".

David Johnston
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  • I always ponder over what those "immune to death by violence" would do at the end of the universe if they cannot die? – miroxlav Feb 19 '19 at 08:21
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    In GURPS? If there was no envionment left that could support their life they would still exist but in a state of perpetual unconsciousness unless some new universe came along to provide a livable condition for them. Unless of course they also had metabolic immunity and didn't need a habitable environment. – David Johnston Feb 19 '19 at 09:16
  • – so then they are merely spirits, putting on material bodies only when possible, i.e. when an universe is temporarily available. – miroxlav Feb 19 '19 at 09:22
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Eternal youth. From Wikipedia:

Eternal youth is the concept of human physical immortality free of ageing. The youth referred to is usually meant to be in contrast to the depredations of aging, rather than a specific age of the human lifespan. Achieving eternal youth so far remains beyond the capabilities of scientific technology. However, much research is being conducted in the sciences of genetics which may allow manipulation of the aging process in the future.[citation needed] Eternal youth is common in mythology, and is a popular theme in fiction.

ashes2ashes
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    "Eternal youth" implies that the subject, well, stays young. It wouldn't be used to describe someone who keeps on getting older and older, but never dies of it. –  Feb 16 '19 at 06:45
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    "Eternal youth" in the context of fiction is generally used to describe people invincible to death by old age. See the Wikipedia article I linked. Unless you're trying to include some possibility of "you can still physically age, but you won't die from it," eternal youthfulness is how I would describe the example given in the OP, i.e. the elves from LOTR. – ashes2ashes Feb 16 '19 at 08:02
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    @duskwuff I'd argue that the common scifi/fantasy trope usually refers to effects that essentially stop aging at the adult stage, having the equivalent of a prime-age human body for millenia. The term should reflect "that the subject, well, stays young" as opposed to someone who keeps visibly aging, becoming equivalent to a 80 year old human with the accumulated bodily changes of aging, then to a 100 year old human with even more such changes, and getting older and older but never dying from it. That would be possible in some story, but that's not the common scenario we're talking about. – Peteris Feb 17 '19 at 02:14
  • @duskwuff : The question explicitly stated "growing to maturity, and then no longer suffering from aging", so this answer is valid. It also shows that the OP was not meaning a struldbrugg-like immortality. – vsz Feb 20 '19 at 05:36
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The term “immorbidity” is used in some SF, for example Wil McCarthy’s Queendom of Sol series.

Mike Scott
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  • I learned something today! That's very useful. ... ok, not very useful, but it could be if magic was real. Or at some point in the future when I'm dead but technology can achieve effective immorbidity. – einpoklum Feb 18 '19 at 00:13
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While this question already has an answer, I'd like to add my two-cents.

From any dictionary definition I've looked at, Immortality means :

The ability to live forever; eternal life.

This definitions fits your criteria :

no longer suffering from aging or be capable of dying to the effects of aging while still maintaining vulnerability to wounds

Since in the definition of Immortality, no mention is made as to any resistance to wounds, illness, or anything else.

Someone who is unable to die from wounds is not immortal, but Invulnerable :

incapable of being wounded, hurt, or damaged.

So while it's true that immortality is commonly used to talk about someone/something that cannot die, or be killed, by definition it only refer to someone/something who cannot die from old age.

user3399
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  • As one gets older, the probability of meeting a fatal accident increases asymptotically towards 1. "The ability to live forever" is therefore predicated on being able to survive what would otherwise be fatal accidents. – Sneftel Feb 19 '19 at 10:14
  • @Sneftel the probability of meeting a fatal accident as one gets older, in and of itself is predicated around the idea of "aging", but anyone being able to live forever would most likely stop to age. Otherwise their body would inevitably stop functionning at some point. – user3399 Feb 19 '19 at 16:38
  • No, it's nothing to do with aging. As your lifespan increases, the likelihood of a low-probability event occuring (like a fatal accident) increases. – Sneftel Feb 19 '19 at 16:53
  • @Sneftel Okay, but even then, the definition of Immortality itself only says "The ability to live forever; eternal life". It does not imply that you cannot be involved into an accident, that you cannot be killed or anything else. It litterally only says that someone Immortal has "The ability to live forever", it does not mean that they will. – user3399 Feb 19 '19 at 16:59
  • In that case, you might as well say that everyone is immortal, because there's a nonzero chance they might spontaneously mutate into being biologically immortal. They therefore technically have the ability to live forever. – Sneftel Feb 19 '19 at 17:02
  • @Sneftel Well no, since an ability is something you do have, not something you could have. For example, every single human has the ability to live until they die of old age. But it does not mean every single human will. – user3399 Feb 19 '19 at 17:17
  • That's the point. The chance of an "immortal" actually living forever is much less than the chance of a normal person spontaneously becoming immortal. – Sneftel Feb 19 '19 at 17:49
  • @user3399, while that interpretation is valid, I have always felt that the term immortality implies that you cannot die. No conditions apply. Sure you can be wounded, your head chopped off, your body ground to tiny pieces then thrown into a volcano to be burned to ash. but you still wouldn't die. – Pliny Feb 24 '19 at 00:16
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    @GarretGang This is due to the way the word has been used, in litterature someone/something that is immortal is often something that cannot die, nor be killed, unless specific means are used. Wich led to the word Immortal to be interpreted a bit differently than its textbook definition. – user3399 Feb 25 '19 at 07:49
  • This is the best answer. But then what word should we use for "immortal + unkillable?" – dlsso Apr 07 '23 at 02:56
  • @dlsso I'm answering quite a bit later, but I'd say that would be "invincible" – user3399 Sep 20 '23 at 14:38
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In sci-fi, this is often called "functionally immortal."

Feather Feet
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Tolkien used the words immortality and immortals to describe the elves. He also used the term longevity, modified in various ways at various times.

It should be noted that Tolkien's elves are not just resistant to old age. They do not suffer disease, and can heal from injuries that would be fatal to a Man. Even if an elf is "killed" by the total destruction of the body, the elf's "spirit" remai8ns in the world, and may in proper cases be re-embodied or re-born as a child but with full memory of his or her previous life. (Tolkien's views on re-birth vs re-embodiment changed over his life.) Glorfindel seems to be an example: he was killed during the sack of Gondolin, but was alive and in the flesh during The Fellowship of the Ring several thousand years later.

The issue is discussed in detail in "Laws and Customs of the Eldar" starting on pager 207 of Morgoth's Ring and again later in the "Dialog of Arabeth and Finrod" later in that volume.

Elves have as their proper lifespan the life of the world itself, and it seems that exactly two elves in all of history have "died indeed and left the world" Luthien and Arwen.

I don't know of an SF or fantasy race that has a llifespan quite like that of Tolkien's elves.

David Siegel
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Possible terms for the kind of immortality brought about by halting aging include 'agelessness' 'indefinitely extended life', and 'biological immortality'.

Aristocratic Jack
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    When answering a question like this, you should examples of where such terms have been used (preferably examples that haven't already been given by other users). – LogicDictates Mar 16 '24 at 09:40
  • Two of these three have already been suggested. The other is just a dictionary definition and not helpful. – Valorum Mar 16 '24 at 10:35