perished 1 of 2

adjective

as in departed

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perished

2 of 2

verb

past tense of perish
1
as in died
to stop living 12 people perished in the plane crash

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in disintegrated
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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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of perished
Verb
Eons ago a star up to 30 times the mass of our sun collapsed and perished, forming a black hole. — Robin George Andrews, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2026 In some ski communities, such as Winter Park, entire mountainsides of trees perished, dramatically altering the landscape. — Jennifer Oldham, Denver Post, 8 Oct. 2026 Thanks to their efforts, only one car, two Vespas and a motorcycle perished in this flood, Navarrete said. — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 6 Oct. 2026 Hearing that several employees have perished in the Greenland blast, Digger thinks only of salvaging his rig. — Justin Chang, New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2026 As a result, more people have now died of environmental illnesses that followed the September 11 attacks than perished during the collapse of the towers that day. — Brenda Goodman, CNN Money, 19 Sep. 2026 Not just the 2,977 deaths of innocent, often brave people — the workers trapped in the towers, the first responders who perished in an attempt to rescue them, the passengers aboard United Flight 93 who fought back against the hijackers. — Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, The Orlando Sentinel, 11 Sep. 2026 Timothy Stackpole, who perished while trying to rescue others at the World Trade Center, to stand and accept applause from the crowd. — Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 11 Sep. 2026 Two horses, as well as ducks and chickens, perished in the fire. — Jennifer McRae, CBS News, 9 Sep. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for perished
  1. departed
  2. died
  3. disintegrated
  4. lost
  5. fell
  6. rotted
  7. extinct
  8. decomposed
Adjective
  • Judaism approaches these moments with deep sensitivity, offering guidance not to judge or criticize, but to bring dignity, comfort, and peace—to the soul of the departed and to those left behind.
    — Rabbi Moishe Kievman, Sun Sentinel, 27 Jan. 2026
Definition of departed
Verb
  • Three people died at the scene and a fourth man later died in hospital, regional military administration head Oleksandr Hanzha reported, while over a dozen people were injured.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 26 Oct. 2026
  • The crash came three weeks after 17 people died in an accident along the same highway linking the capital, Nairobi, with the coastal city of Mombasa.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 25 Oct. 2026
Definition of died
Verb
  • The faction that had a chokehold on the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) roster for quite some time completely disintegrated in recent weeks leading to all four male members getting into a match for Mustafa Ali’s TNA International Championship.
    — Ryan Gaydos OutKick, FOXNews.com, 12 Oct. 2026
  • After 14 years of exploration, the Galileo spacecraft intentionally fell into Jupiter and disintegrated in the planet's dense atmosphere.
    — Tariq Malik, Space.com, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of disintegrated
Adjective
  • Nobody knows what a Fing is, but her doting parents agree to the request, sending her father on a journey to a lost jungle to find one.
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 19 Oct. 2026
  • An extra $6,000 or $29,000 in gains over a decade won’t replace a lost job.
    — Sarah Cannon, Fortune, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of lost
Verb
  • Griess, the superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks, said the 430 trees that were felled were not identified as hazardous or raising safety concerns.
    — Melissa Quinn, CBS News, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Yet trees that took a millennium to grow can be felled in under an hour.
    — Annika Hammerschlag, Los Angeles Times, 16 Sep. 2026
Definition of fell
Verb
  • So much of it has degraded—tapes rotted to spooky fuzz, videos with shaggy images and too‑white faces.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 27 Aug. 2026
  • By this point the food in her fridge rotted and her basement flooded.
    — Rebecca Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of rotted
Adjective
  • The company has pursued efforts to recreate extinct species, including the dodo and woolly mammoth.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 23 Oct. 2026
  • This crane had nearly gone extinct before, driven in part by an explosion of new hydroelectric dams in the early 20th century, whose construction dried out local wetlands.
    — Sara Herschander, Vox, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of extinct
Verb
  • The coins were originally buried together in a container made of organic material that has since decomposed, archaeologists believe.
    — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Many of the children's bodies were severely decomposed, with only 26 able to be identified, and investigations into the other deaths are ongoing.
    — Jefferson Kahinju Reuters, Arkansas Online, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of decomposed

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Cite this Entry

“Perished.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/perished. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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