: not dead : returned from or as if from death
It may be someone I don't want to see—from the undead past, an ex-lover, my ex-best friend.—Lynne Tillman
especially, in stories about vampires and zombies
: reanimated after death by supernatural means
undead creatures
We would all recognize a vampire if we saw one, that 'undead' soul who rises from the grave to gorge himself upon the blood of the living, thereby creating further generations of vampires. —Roy Porter
—often used as a collective noun Zombies apparently never brush. Witness the rotten chompers flashed by lumbering hordes of hungry undead in this dexterous thriller … —People
—used especially as the undead A brainy young philosophy graduate student … gets sucked into the nightmare world of the undead in Abel Ferrara's black-and-white indie vampire tale. —Entertainment Weekly
Cite this Entry
“Undead.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/undead. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.
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