Mortal — A Vocabulary Story
The Mortal Coil of Cairo
Zahra crouched in the narrow alleyway behind the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, her sketchbook balanced on her knees. Above her, copper lanterns swayed in the desert breeze, and the call to prayer drifted across Cairo's rooftops.
She was drawing the old clockmaker, Patrick, an Irish expat who had run the tiny shop for thirty years. His hands trembled as he worked, but his eyes were sharp as needles.
"Why do you fix watches that nobody collects?" Zahra asked, slipping inside.
Patrick smiled. "Because every clock is a mortal thing, like us. It ticks, it slows, it stops. Someone ought to give it a fighting chance."
Mortal means subject to death. It also means causing or capable of causing death. It can also mean human and not divine.
Zahra paused, pencil hovering above the page.
Patrick held up a pocket watch. "This belonged to a soldier. He was mortal. The watch outlived him. But one day, even the watch will be mortal too."
She thought about her grandmother, who had passed last spring, and the mortal ache that still visited some evenings.
"Then why bother?" she whispered.
Patrick wound the tiny crown. The watch began ticking, steady and brave. "Because mortal things are precious, Zahra. A stone lasts forever and feels nothing. We feel everything because we don't."
She added the ticking watch to her drawing. Outside, the mortal city hummed on, golden and unrepeatable, and entirely worth saving.
Word Definition
mortal
meaning
subject to death; causing or capable of causing death; human and not divine
synonyms
dire · fatal · grim · lethal · malignant
antonyms
vital · eternal · undying
example sentence
All humans are mortal and must face death eventually.