muertas

Muertas is the feminine plural form of the Spanish noun muerta, and is used in both noun and adjective senses. As a noun, muerta refers to a woman who has died or to a female corpse; muertas denotes more than one such person. The term tends to appear in obituaries, historical or criminal descriptions, and literary or journalistic contexts where the subject is a deceased woman. In everyday speech, muerta can also occur in idiomatic expressions, such as quedar muerta, meaning to be shocked or exhausted, though this usage is informal and regionally variable.

As an adjective, muerta describes a feminine noun as dead, for example una persona muerta. It functions parallel to muerto for masculine references. The forms reflect gender agreement in Spanish and derive from the Latin mortuus.

Muertas is distinct from muertes, the plural of muerte, which specifically means “deaths” in a general or abstract sense rather than referring to living individuals or a particular deceased woman. Because muerta signals gender, context matters for interpretation—whether the reference is to a female corpse, to a historical figure, or to a literary image.

In cultural and linguistic usage, muertas may appear in titles, poetic passages, or descriptions involving female subjects who are dead, but it is not a fixed cultural term with a universal ritual meaning. See also muerta, muerto, and muertes for related terms.