as in to disintegrate
to go through decomposition
detectives needed to know how long it would take a corpse to decompose to that advanced state
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Recent Examples of decompose
Cut openings for the plants, and the jute will decompose over time.
—
Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 17 May 2025
Molasses is food for soil microbes—tiny living organisms like bacteria, fungi, and protozoa—that decompose organic matter, improve soil structure, and make nutrients available to plants, Fox says.
—Leanne Potts, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 June 2025
The microbes perform vital functions like decomposing organic matter, improving water-holding capacity, cycling nutrients, and suppressing pathogens to improve plant resilience and overall soil health.
—Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 24 May 2025
While inside the ancient Roman mine, the team noticed small crustaceans on decomposing wood chunks, the study said.
—Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for decompose
Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 17 May 2025
Molasses is food for soil microbes—tiny living organisms like bacteria, fungi, and protozoa—that decompose organic matter, improve soil structure, and make nutrients available to plants, Fox says.
—Leanne Potts, Better Homes & Gardens, 11 June 2025
The microbes perform vital functions like decomposing organic matter, improving water-holding capacity, cycling nutrients, and suppressing pathogens to improve plant resilience and overall soil health.
—Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 24 May 2025
While inside the ancient Roman mine, the team noticed small crustaceans on decomposing wood chunks, the study said.
—Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for decompose
Recent Examples of Synonyms for decompose
Verb
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In its most recent demonstration May 27, Starship spun out of control roughly halfway through its flight and disintegrated in a fireball before achieving some of its most important objectives.—
Eric Lagatta,
USA Today,
3 June 2025
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Laura’s house is a messy, colorful disaster, reflecting a personality that was clearly once charmingly ditzy and has disintegrated into instability.—
David Sims,
The Atlantic,
30 May 2025
Verb
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However, when viruses were exposed to sunlight, many of them did not survive as long, decaying in under 24 hours.—
Jack Knudson,
Discover Magazine,
13 Mar. 2025
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The result was not only environmental catastrophe but license for unchecked consumption of cheap plastic goods that can take a few minutes to use but hundreds of years to decay.—
Scott W. Stern,
The Atlantic,
10 Mar. 2025
Verb
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The oversized chair duo is made from environmentally friendly materials that are weather-resistant and won’t crack, fade, peel, or rot.—
Mariana Best,
Better Homes & Gardens,
20 June 2025
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The world may have left England to rot (a subplot involving a foreign soldier implies that other nations have taken an active interest in helping that process along), but any society that allows an entire country to become an open-air graveyard is sick with a terrible virus of its own.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
18 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Decompose.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/decompose. Accessed 2 Jul. 2025.
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