MORTALITY n.
from a given large number of persons alive at one age, it can be computed what number are likely to survive a given number of years. -- Table of mortality, a table exhibiting the average relative number of persons who survive, or who have died, at the end of each year of life, out of a given number supposed to have be…
RATHER adv.
Of two alternatives conceived of, by preference to, or as more likely than, the other; somewhat. He sought throughout the world, but sought in vain, And nowhere finding, rather feared her slain. Dryden.