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

But large companies with cash piles and longer-term debt can avoid experiencing some of that pain in the near term. — Alex Harring, CNBC, 21 Sep. 2026 At the pupae stage, they can be easily sorted into piles of males and females. — Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 21 Sep. 2026 Before the attack, millions of books a year were printed in this space, where there’s now nothing but piles of swollen book stock, ruined after firefighters put out the blaze. — ABC News, 21 Sep. 2026 Bonfires are typically a nice fall event, but firewood piles are magnets for the reptile, and much the same for rock piles along trails. — Isa Almeida, Oklahoman, 21 Sep. 2026 Discard the plant debris in the garbage or at a commercial landscape waste operation where compost piles will get hot enough to kill the insects. — Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 20 Sep. 2026 Around them stand darkened houses, and uncollected trash piles up on the street. — Will Freeman, Foreign Affairs, 17 Sep. 2026 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

Verb

My father piles French toast and syrup onto a plate and my mother pours a glass of milk. — Literary Hub, 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 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

Recent Examples of Synonyms for piles

Noun

Biblical verses are printed on the walls and weight stacks, and prayer requests cover a white board.

— Sarah Cutler, Idaho Statesman, 17 Sep. 2026
The namesake Daybreaker stacks Vietnamese sausage, egg and a Vietnamese-style sauce on a brioche bun.

— Heidi Finley, Charlotte Observer, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of stacks

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 country plans to expand LNG capacity from 77 million tons per year to 142 million by 2030, and duplicating that infrastructure isn’t feasible.

— Mohammed Sergie, semafor.com, 21 Sep. 2026
Every year, more than 350 million tons of PET plastic waste are generated globally.

— Mrigakshi Dixit, Interesting Engineering, 21 Sep. 2026