1
as in dies
to stop living
12 people perished in the plane crash
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in disintegrates
chiefly British
to go through decomposition
after being left out in the summer heat, the milk perished and had to be thrown out
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of perishes
Every soldier Harry would have saved on a transport during the war perishes too.
—
Margaret Heidenry, Vanity Fair, 24 Dec. 2025
Factory ships deplete fisheries in a matter of years and an inordinate amount of sea life also perishes in their nets.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 12 Aug. 2025
Margaret Heidenry, Vanity Fair, 24 Dec. 2025
Factory ships deplete fisheries in a matter of years and an inordinate amount of sea life also perishes in their nets.
—Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for perishes
Verb
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If the president dies, resigns, or becomes incapacitated, the vice president will serve as interim president for the remainder of the seven-year tenure.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
5 Apr. 2026
-
No baseball community dies harder, without reward, than the Rockies faithful, spring after spring.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
4 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The café disintegrates, white-peach mimosas lost forever.—
Sara Holdren,
Vulture,
26 Feb. 2026
-
If the American state disintegrates, future postmortems are unlikely to focus much on measles, or on rotavirus vaccination rates.—
Vann R. Newkirk II,
The Atlantic,
9 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
That means Easter Sunday never falls later than April 25.—
Manon Bischoff,
Scientific American,
4 Apr. 2026
-
On shrill winter nights, Moscow’s power is conspicuous, its Orthodox cathedrals and Stalinist high-rises illuminated, though the view falls dim in the autumn and spring, shrouded in sheets of greige.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Another process, thermogenic hydrogen formation, occurs in deep sedimentary basins when organic material decomposes under high temperatures, roughly 480 to 930 degrees Fahrenheit (250 to 500 degrees Celsius).—
Promise Longe,
The Conversation,
26 Feb. 2026
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The clever bit is when these fuels flow through the Draper engine and encounter a catalyst that decomposes the hydrogen peroxide into high-pressure oxygen and steam.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
25 Feb. 2026
Verb
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But her character succumbs to Ducournau’s convoluted plotting.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Mar. 2026
-
The 11-year-old titular character in Hamnet, up for Best Picture, succumbs to the plague.—
Shirley Li,
The Atlantic,
12 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
In theory, beryllium-8 normally decays into two helium-4 nuclei.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
19 Mar. 2026
-
This state then decays through a two-step cascade, releasing two photons in rapid succession.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
8 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The big differences between the labs probably reflect the fact that, as Italians like to say, the fish rots from the head.—
Caroline Mimbs Nyce,
New Yorker,
10 Feb. 2026
-
Bacterial plant diseases include speck (a winter-surviving infection that attacks tomatoes), canker (which damages fruit trees including those producing apples and peaches), and blight (which rots melons, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, beans, and more).—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
10 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Perishes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/perishes. Accessed 5 Apr. 2026.
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