Standard Lemma guide

decease

noun · verb · 5 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /dɪˈsiːs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -iːs
  • CMU ARPABET: D IH0 S IY1 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Death, departure from life.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, formal, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: demise, quietus, death, tomb, celestial transfer, decease, decomposition, defunction, dematerialization, dirt nap, doom, exit, expiration, fatality, liquidation, mortality, passing, repose, sleep of the just, sunset, the big sleep, crash, downfall, fall, (the) bane, (the) end

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To die.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: archaic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: expire, perish, assume room temperature, auger in, be called home, be gathered to one's fathers, be like the the One, be no more, be with Jesus, be with the Lord, bite the big one, bite the biscuit, bite the dust, buy the farm, buy it, cark it, cash in, cash in one's chips, check out, close one's eyes for the last time, code, conk out, croak, cross over, cross the Great Divide, cross the Styx, darken, decease, decompose, dematerialize, depart, disincarnate, draw one's last breath, drop off the hooks, exit, fall off the twig, flatline, forfare, give one's all, give up the ghost, go for a burton, go out, go over to the majority, go the way of all flesh, go the way of the dinosaurs, go the way of the dodo, go the way of the dodo bird, go to glory, go to one's reward, go west, hand in one's checks, hand in one's dinner pail, hop the twig, join the choir invisible, keel over, kick the bucket, kick off, knock off, liquidate, lose the number of one's mess, meet one's doom, meet one's end, meet one's maker, pass, pass away, pass in one's checks, pass in one's marble, pass on, pass over, pass the river, pay nature's debt, pay the debt of nature, peg out, pop off, pop one's clogs, push up daisies, shuffle off this mortal coil, sink, sleep with one's fathers, slip away, snuff it, succumb, take a dirt nap, turn up one's toes, yield up the ghost

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To cause to die.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: formal, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

the event of dying or departure from life

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • her death came as a terrible shock
  • upon your decease the capital will pass to your grandchildren

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: death, expiry

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: change, alteration, modification

Narrower terms: fatality, human death, martyrdom, megadeath, passing, loss, departure, exit, expiration, going, release, wrongful death, Crucifixion

5

verb

Meaning 5

pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • She died from cancer
  • The children perished in the fire
  • The patient went peacefully
  • The old guy kicked the bucket at the age of 102

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: die, perish, go, exit, pass away, expire, pass, kick the bucket, cash in one's chips, buy the farm, conk, give-up the ghost, drop dead, pop off, choke, croak, snuff it

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: change state, turn

Narrower terms: abort, suffocate, stifle, asphyxiate, buy it, pip out, drown, predecease, starve, famish, fall, succumb, yield

History

Etymology

From Old French deces (Modern French décès), from Latin dēcessus (“departure”).

Across languages

Translations

57 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: رحل عن الحياة — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Armenian: վախճան (vaxčan) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Bengali: মৃত্যু (mrittu) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Bengali: ওফাত (ofat) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Bulgarian: смърт (smǎrt) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Bulgarian: кончина (končina) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Catalan: defunció — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Chinese Mandarin: 死亡 (sǐwáng) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Czech: skon — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Czech: smrt — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Danish: bortgang — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Finnish: kuolema — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Finnish: poismeno — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • French: décès — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Galician: falecemento — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Galician: pasamento — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Galician: óbito — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Galician: finamento — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • German: Ableben — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • German: Exitus — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • German: Hinschied — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Italian: decesso — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Japanese: 他界 (takai) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Japanese: 物故 (bukko) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Japanese: 死去 (shikyo) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Northern Kurdish: wefat — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Northern Kurdish: mirin — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Malayalam: മരണം (maraṇaṁ) — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Norwegian Bokmål: død — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Norwegian Bokmål: bortgang — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Portuguese: falecimento — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Spanish: fallecimiento — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Spanish: deceso — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Spanish: óbito — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Spanish: defunción — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Spanish: fenecimiento — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Spanish: perecimiento — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Swedish: bortgång — departure, especially departure from this life; death
  • Bulgarian: умирам (umiram) — to die
  • Chinese Mandarin: 死亡 (sǐwáng) — to die
  • Chinese Mandarin: 去世 (qùshì) — to die
  • Danish: gå bort — to die
  • French: décéder — to die
  • French: expirer — to die
  • French: mourir — to die
  • French: trépasser — to die
  • German: ableben — to die
  • German: hinscheiden — to die
  • German: dahinscheiden — to die
  • Italian: morire — to die
  • Japanese: 他界する (takai suru) — to die
  • Japanese: 亡くなる (nakunaru) — to die
  • Japanese: 死去する (shikyo suru) — to die
  • Portuguese: falecer — to die
  • Vietnamese: chết — to die
  • Vietnamese: mất — to die
  • Vietnamese: qua đời — to die