PILES Synonyms: 260 Similar and Opposite Words

piles 1 of 3

noun (1)

plural of pile

as in stacks

a quantity of things thrown or stacked on one another a large pile of newspapers that needed to be disposed of

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

as in loads

a considerable amount a job that paid piles of money

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

piles

2 of 3

noun (2)

plural of pile

as in furs

a soft airy substance or covering the lush pile of the carpeting

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as in wools

the hairy covering of a mammal especially when fine, soft, and thick a dog with such a dense pile that he never minded the cold

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piles

3 of 3

verb

present tense third-person singular of pile

as in heaps

to lay or throw on top of one another piled all the clothes on the chair before putting them away

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

unpiles

as in huddles

to gather into a closely packed group the kids piled into the car

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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 piles

Noun

Eventually, the firms dumped the valuable slag into waste piles and wrote off the metals inside. — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 15 Sep. 2026 Some T-shirts and hats were handed out, but players only briefly put them on before adding them to the piles some of them have at home. — Fabian Ardaya, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026 Lining the approach to the gate, there was an embarrassment of new undergarments, towering piles of briefs and T-shirts. — Devin Friedman, Rolling Stone, 11 Sep. 2026 When snow piles deep in the upper reaches, animals have no choice but to migrate down, since their food sources are covered with snow. — Jim Zumbo, Outdoor Life, 10 Sep. 2026 Two piles of large rocks in the water partition the middle beach into its own alcove. — Bridget Fogarty, jsonline.com, 10 Sep. 2026 Debris piles should be at least three feet from utilities, mailboxes, trees and other structures. — Kate Kealey, Des Moines Register, 9 Sep. 2026 In compost piles, these items count as carbon-rich ingredients and compost better when mixed with nitrogen-rich materials and kept damp, but not soggy. — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 9 Sep. 2026 Last June, the European Anti-Fraud Office found huge piles of textile waste—somewhere around 4,200 tonnes—illegally shipped from Italy to Turkey in order to avoid expensive recycling requirements. — Roy Stephen Canivel, Footwear News, 8 Sep. 2026

Verb

Once a week, Hall piles his three kids in the car, drives five minutes to Costco and turns into the second row of the parking lot. — Jessica Guynn, USA Today, 30 July 2026 According to relationship experts at The Gottman Institute, couples who talk through those details in advance tend to adjust more smoothly and argue less about the small stuff that piles up after move-in day. — Ashley Lynch, Sacbee.com, 29 July 2026 Instead of asking whether existing programs are delivering results, Congress piles new spending and new funding streams onto an already fragmented system. — Andy Harris, Baltimore Sun, 4 July 2026 The dirty laundry never piles up, nor does the ready-to-fold pile. — Tessa Cooper, The Spruce, 30 June 2026 More specifically — and without spoiling a story that piles the twists as high as the corpses — Pine's an ex-British soldier pulled from his porter duties and recruited to surveil a ruthless arms dealer, Richard Roper (Hugh Laurie) staying at the hotel. — Matt Cabral, Entertainment Weekly, 10 Apr. 2026 The result piles more pressure on Starmer, the least popular prime minister since records began, according to some polls. — Alexander Smith, NBC news, 27 Feb. 2026 But when snow piles up in powdery white masses, Arizonans can't resist the opportunity to play in it. — Michael Salerno, AZCentral.com, 19 Feb. 2026 His intervention piles fresh pressure on the prime minister. — Efrat Lachter, FOXNews.com, 9 Feb. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for piles

Noun

Plus, one of the Legislature’s last acts last week was to send Newsom a bloated supplemental budget bill containing more than $3 billion in spending, including countless stacks of pork sought by lawmakers for their districts.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 Sep. 2026
Her existence is solitary by design, freeing her up to disappear into her studies at all hours of the night, the doors of every institution seemingly always ready to welcome her into its stacks and viewing stations and leather reading chairs.

— Alison Willmore, Vulture, 3 Sep. 2026

Definition of stacks

Noun

The size and specialized nature of these loads can also create opportunities for carriers to take on new customers and routes.

— Kevin Williams, CNBC, 5 Sep. 2026
Faster speeds generally mean a compromise in quality, multi-color 3D printers often waste some filament, and higher volume loads usually demand more hardware.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 5 Sep. 2026

Definition of loads

Noun

Chandeliers hang from sandstone ceilings while jewel-tone wallpaper, furs, and velvet warm things up.

— Julia Sayers Gokhale, Midwest Living, 9 Aug. 2026
In others, background actors adjust their chain mail and faux furs and clutch prop weapons, some of which are designed to explode and splatter blood on impact.

— Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 13 July 2026

Definition of furs

Noun

Using luxurious cottons, silks, wools and linen to emphasize the simplicity and ease of wardrobe staples — T-shirts, shorts, sweatshirts, skirts, button-down shirts, pants and tunics — elevating their wearability for day and night.

— Tonya Blazio-Licorish, Footwear News, 4 Aug. 2026
Although the word cashmere is sometimes incorrectly applied to extremely soft wools, only the product of the cashmere goat is true cashmere.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 31 Mar. 2026

Definition of wools

Verb

Despite his injury, Tasci continued to be an active participant on the sideline and in team huddles throughout the game.

— Sean Campbell, Daily News, 28 Aug. 2026
An engineer overhears a sales call where a partner is requesting a specific feature and immediately huddles with the salesperson once the line clicks shut.

— Vikram Joshi, Forbes.com, 1 June 2026

Definition of huddles

Noun

The company estimates that installed LNG capacity will need to reach 900 million tons per annum by 2035 to meet future demand.

— Lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 14 Sep. 2026
And while their estimate of a billion tons of water is much higher than what's believed to exist, Elvis and McDowell say finding additional water could extend a large city's lifespan.

— Matthew Glasser, ABC News, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of tons

Noun

As the leaves start to don their sienna coats and the mercury drops into the comfortable-sweater- weather range, autumn's many joys come to the fore.

— Kat Chen, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Sep. 2026
Toward the end of the show, a female model came trundling down the runway, adorned in one of the collection’s more elegant coats crafted from a buoyant faux fur.

— Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 14 Sep. 2026