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

The Rest and Relax Inn in Pensacola, Florida, was surrounded by piles of debris after it was stripped of roofing materials during a heavy hit from the hurricane last night. — Erika Angulo, NBC news, 11 Oct. 2026 Pictures show divers working among piles of ancient pottery, with ceramic plates and bowls scattered across the sandy seabed. — Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 9 Oct. 2026 This practice allows property owners to burn small piles of wood on their property, in some cases with a permit and during certain weather conditions. — Jennifer Oldham, Denver Post, 8 Oct. 2026 There simply wasn’t enough of either scattered across the piles, the team found. — Mike McRae 06, New Atlas, 6 Oct. 2026 Nearby, the neat rows of grapevines and fig trees his family had tended for three generations had vanished under piles of rubble. — Ghada Abdulfattah, Christian Science Monitor, 2 Oct. 2026 These foundation piles act as underwater stilts, anchoring and supporting heavy offshore infrastructure. — Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 29 Sep. 2026 Do not compost diseased foliage because home compost piles or bins usually do not get hot enough to kill the pathogens. — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 28 Sep. 2026 Both he and his now ex-wife were arrested, with piles of cash found in a Bagel Bites box in their freezer, down a heat vent, and submerged in spaghetti sauce. — Derek Lawrence, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Sep. 2026

Verb

My father piles French toast and syrup onto a plate and my mother pours a glass of milk. — Literary Hub, 17 Sep. 2026 Big swine farms produce huge amounts of solid waste, which piles up in lagoons until a flood can wash them into rivers. — Bill McKibben, New Yorker, 17 Sep. 2026 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for piles

Noun

Rush’s musical complexity leaned towards proggy adventures with time signatures and song structure, while Steely Dan were more inclined to wedge wild stacks of jazz chords into pop songs.

— Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 10 Oct. 2026
Ellison said Skydance has already unified ad sales across the platforms and is working to unify back-end tech stacks.

— Catriona Marangi,Sarah Whitten, CNBC, 8 Oct. 2026

Definition of stacks

Noun

This is the kind of test that quickly separates a power station that merely has an impressive number printed on its case from one with an inverter and battery management system capable of handling tough, real-world loads.

— Michael Lydick, PC Magazine, 9 Oct. 2026
Data collected from the test rig could allow manufacturers to design heat pumps and heat exchangers for high temperatures, large loads, and changing conditions.

— Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 7 Oct. 2026

Definition of loads

Noun

An early tour of his estate, provided by the swirling camerawork of Emmanuel Lubezki, reveals a catalogue of crimes against the animal kingdom, with antlers and furs festooning every surface.

— Justin Chang, New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2026
Pony fur falls under an umbrella category of animal furs that accounted for $468,330 of Canadian exports to the United States last year, according to US trade data.

— Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN Money, 10 Sep. 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

Inside, the line wraps around the room, and cups everywhere are filled with fluffy mounds of Greek yogurt crowned with fresh fruit, nuts, dark chocolate cacao nibs and other ingredients.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 7 Oct. 2026
Stem cells, peptides, testosterone, pills, mounds of supplements just to keep everything balanced.

— Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 2 Oct. 2026

Definition of mounds

Noun

According to Colombian police accounts cited by El Tiempo, Pulido coordinated the shipment of approximately two tons of cocaine and 17 kilograms of heroin to Europe in 1999.

— Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 12 Oct. 2026
Moscow — By agreeing to open Russia’s taps and release hundreds of thousands of tons of diesel into a starving global market, the Kremlin has achieved something that raw military might on the battlefields of eastern Ukraine could never deliver.

— Matthew Chance, CNN Money, 11 Oct. 2026

Definition of tons

Noun

But those eager to pull out their sweaters and coats may have to wait a bit longer.

— Taylor Croft, AJC.com, 11 Oct. 2026
My stand-out category was the outerwear—a point of interest for any New Yorker subjected to increasingly fickle temperatures—with both transitional pieces and heavier, winter-ready coats on the racks.

— Elly Leavitt, Vogue, 8 Oct. 2026