1
as in to die
to stop living
12 people perished in the plane crash
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to disintegrate
chiefly British
to go through decomposition
after being left out in the summer heat, the milk perished and had to be thrown out
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Recent Examples of perish
The pope, at this very moment, is having the fallen part of the Colosseum rebuilt; half a dozen mason’s apprentices, without any scaffolding, are righting the colossus on whose shoulders a nation, transformed into slave laborers, perished.
—
Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
Those who perished include 90-year-old Doreen Ellis, a Crown Heights resident with dementia who wandered out of her apartment into the frigid air Sunday night.
—Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, 27 Jan. 2026
Martin Farquhar Tupper, a poet and an antiquarian favored by Queen Victoria, argued that Rapa Nui was the remnant of a lost continent whose people had perished.
—Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026
Everything there fell apart and perished, as though the steppe were a field of deadly frequency, annihilating, on a molecular level, any object that happened into it.
—Literary Hub, 23 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for perish
Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026
Those who perished include 90-year-old Doreen Ellis, a Crown Heights resident with dementia who wandered out of her apartment into the frigid air Sunday night.
—Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, 27 Jan. 2026
Martin Farquhar Tupper, a poet and an antiquarian favored by Queen Victoria, argued that Rapa Nui was the remnant of a lost continent whose people had perished.
—Margaret Talbot, New Yorker, 26 Jan. 2026
Everything there fell apart and perished, as though the steppe were a field of deadly frequency, annihilating, on a molecular level, any object that happened into it.
—Literary Hub, 23 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for perish
Recent Examples of Synonyms for perish
Verb
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Brad Arnold, the 47-year-old cofounder and lead singer of the Mississippi rock band 3 Doors Down, died Saturday, nine months after revealing a diagnosis of kidney cancer.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
8 Feb. 2026
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The company's founder and namesake, Walt Disney, had died in December 1966, but his presence still loomed large over a studio that was seemingly second-guessing its every move.—
Richard Edwards,
Space.com,
8 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Generational lies begin to unravel, and the fabric of this family slowly begins to disintegrate.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
5 Feb. 2026
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This vacuum was meant to prevent the tungsten filament––that’s the little wire inside the bulb, the thing that glows––from burning up and disintegrating immediately, which is what a very hot piece of metal would do in the presence of oxygen.—
Natalia Sánchez Loayza,
Scientific American,
5 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Council members had long pledged to quell gang violence and improve life for Haiti but fell overwhelmingly short.—
EVENS SANON,
Arkansas Online,
8 Feb. 2026
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Short video and artificial intelligence video generation company Kuaishou fell by 11% during the same time period.—
Evelyn Cheng,
CNBC,
8 Feb. 2026
Verb
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This creates 22,000 metric tons of waste that can take up to 120 years to decompose, making these bulky items one of the most difficult and persistent challenges in modern recycling.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Feb. 2026
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His work on Prototaxites fossils has shown that the ancient organisms didn’t use photosynthesis to produce energy from light like plants, but likely consumed carbon sources in the environment — just as some living fungi live off decomposing organic matter.—
Katie Hunt,
CNN Money,
5 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries, while Wolfe was critically injured and remains hospitalized.—
Rachel Wolf , Jake Gibson,
FOXNews.com,
4 Feb. 2026
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Divide Crowded Perennials Overgrown perennials become stressed, develop bald centers, stop flowering, and succumb to mildew problems due to poor air flow.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
4 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Tubers with healthy shoots get a head start on the growing process and are less likely to rot in the ground.—
Sheryl Geerts,
Better Homes & Gardens,
6 Feb. 2026
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Of the millions of mattresses discarded each year globally, only a small fraction is ever recycled, leaving the vast majority to rot in overstuffed landfills.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
5 Feb. 2026
Verb
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About 10 percent of the county’s waste is green material, which includes decaying trees and invasive plants.—
Ashley Miznazi,
Miami Herald,
7 Feb. 2026
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Not only does topping a crape myrtle turn it into an eyesore, but these brutal pruning cuts can cause disease and decay to set into the wood.—
Leanne Potts,
Better Homes & Gardens,
5 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Perish.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/perish. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.
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