: a sudden sharp decline of a population of animals or plants that is not caused directly by human activity
died off; dying off; dies off
: to die sequentially either singly or in numbers so that the total number is greatly diminished
Examples of die-off in a Sentence
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Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 29 Oct. 2025
What To Know The February 18 collapse of a earthen dam at a Sino-Metals mine released roughly 50 million liters of acidic waste into a tributary of Zambia’s Kafue River, causing a massive fish die-off as far as 70 miles downstream and forcing the nearby city of Kitwe to shut down its water supply.
—Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2025
Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 23 Oct. 2025
Depending on their environment, those cells can either die off, which leads to gray hair, or survive and multiply in ways that could trigger melanoma, according to a university press release.
—Khloe Quill, FOXNews.com, 22 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for die-off
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Noun
That report, authored by 160 scientists from 87 institutions in 23 countries, warns that warm-water coral reefs that support nearly a billion people and a quarter of all marine life are crossing their tipping point, as evidenced by mass die-offs already under way.
—Sharmila Kuthunur, Space.com, 29 Oct. 2025
What To Know The February 18 collapse of a earthen dam at a Sino-Metals mine released roughly 50 million liters of acidic waste into a tributary of Zambia’s Kafue River, causing a massive fish die-off as far as 70 miles downstream and forcing the nearby city of Kitwe to shut down its water supply.
—Micah McCartney, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Oct. 2025
Verb
Climate projections suggest severe bleaching will occur every year by 2040 and, as oceans continue to warm, other coral species are likely to die off, too.
—Laura Paddison, CNN Money, 23 Oct. 2025
Depending on their environment, those cells can either die off, which leads to gray hair, or survive and multiply in ways that could trigger melanoma, according to a university press release.
—Khloe Quill, FOXNews.com, 22 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for die-off
Cite this Entry
“Die-off.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/die-off. Accessed 6 Nov. 2025.
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