I Swear English › Vocabulary A–Z › Deadline
What does ‘Deadline’ mean?
Noun: a deadline · two deadlines · /ˈdedlaɪn/
A deadline is the date or time by which you must finish a task or submit something.
The deadline for sending in your story is 2 p.m. on Tuesday.
In this example, Tuesday is the final day, but the cutoff is 2 p.m., not midnight. If an instruction gives only a date, check the exact time and time zone instead of assuming you have until 11:59 p.m.
Words that go with deadline
- Meet a deadline: finish on time. We finished early and met the deadline.
- Miss a deadline: fail to finish in time. The editor could not use my story because I missed the deadline.
- Set a deadline: decide the cutoff. Let’s set a deadline for choosing a name.
- Extend a deadline: allow more time. The organiser extended the deadline by three days.
- A tight deadline: little time is available. Two days to translate the booklet is a tight deadline.
A deadline is not necessarily impossible to change. Whether an extension or late submission is allowed depends on the person or organisation setting it.
By or until?
By gives the latest time for completion: Please finish the drawing by six. It can be finished earlier.
Until describes an activity or situation continuing to that time: I’ll work on the drawing until six. That sentence does not promise the drawing will be finished.
Deadline or dateline?
A deadline is a time limit. A dateline is the place, and often the date, printed at the start of a news report. You meet a deadline; you do not meet a dateline.
Why is it called a deadline?
Merriam-Webster records an older use for a boundary around a prison that prisoners risked being shot for crossing. The familiar time-limit meaning appeared in the early twentieth century. Treat “the point where a process dies” as a memory aid, not a literal account of the word’s history.
Watch: ‘Deadline’ explained
Original lesson by iswearenglish · Watch on YouTube
The transcript below preserves the original lesson. Its “becomes dead” explanation is a memory aid; the word history and the distinction between a deadline and an expiry date need their own context.
Original video transcript
Try it yourself
Choose an answer for each question. Check your choices, or open the answer notes to compare them yourself.
Answer notes
- By. The draft must be sent no later than the specified time.
- Extended. More time is now available.
- Friday at 12 p.m. Noon is midday, not the end of the day.
Usage references: Oxford: deadline, Cambridge: until and by, Washington State University: dateline/deadline, Merriam-Webster: the history of deadline.