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

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 Anything With Signs of Furniture Beetle Damage Always inspect the legs or underside of hardwood and softwood furniture to look for telltale piles of sawdust. — Felicia Feaster, Martha Stewart, 27 Sep. 2026 Our staffers have spent years testing wool rugs in their personal spaces, from low-key flatweaves to groovy shag piles, and picked up plenty of insights on styling and maintaining them along the way. — Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 26 Sep. 2026 If work piles up at review, the questions aren’t for the developers but for the review process itself. — Illia Smoliienko, Forbes.com, 25 Sep. 2026 Leslie Goldman, who lives near Studebaker and Stearns, said large piles of dirt — at times higher than cars — have blocked residents from crossing the street or seeing oncoming traffic. — Barbara Kingsley-Wilson, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026 At the pupae stage, they can be easily sorted into piles of males and females. — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 21 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

The Fifth Avenue windows set the tone before guests even stepped inside, with stacks of books wrapped in jackets printed with patterns from the collection, alongside illustrations inspired by the same prints.

— Donna Kim, Vogue, 27 Sep. 2026
Earlier experiments showed optical switching only in magnetic stacks containing no more than three layers.

— Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 26 Sep. 2026

Definition of stacks

Noun

Presenter Zane Lowe has conducted loads of candid interviews with new and established musicians, and the company's Los Angeles studio has captured dozens of memorable performances for posterity.

— New Atlas, New Atlas, 27 Sep. 2026
The two feature about 2,000 sensors that measure loads, airflow, vibrations and how the turbines interact with each other.

— Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 25 Sep. 2026

Definition of loads

Noun

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

— Julia Sayers Gokhale, Midwest Living, 9 Aug. 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

Although garden mums are considered hardy to Zone 5, breeders have developed fall mums with big mounds of showy flowers that may not be as cold-hardy as in the past.

— Lynn Coulter, Better Homes & Gardens, 12 Sep. 2026
Sign Up for Our Free Daily Newsletter Some hills in northern Alabama are burial mounds from the Copena people who lived there 2,000 years ago.

— Elizabeth Anne Brown, Scientific American, 2 Sep. 2026

Definition of mounds

Noun

The rule also translates to an extra 90 tons a year of soot particles and 4,870 additional tons a year of smog components such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds emitted into the air in coming years, experts say.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 29 Sep. 2026
Now, workers in trucks move tons of earth to the gypstacks to fill and contour the former holding ponds.

— Ryan Ballogg, Miami Herald, 28 Sep. 2026

Definition of tons

Noun

While the polyester fabric isn’t ideal, I was impressed by the coat’s thickness and weight, which gave it a more luxurious feel than typical poly-blend coats.

— Irene Richardson, InStyle, 29 Sep. 2026
As September draws to a close and attention turns toward coats and knitwear, Lopez is thinking about bare skin, salt water, and disappearing somewhere with very little on the agenda.

— Anna Cafolla, Vogue, 28 Sep. 2026