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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

die.

To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/daɪ/[däɪ̯]Received-Pronunciation, US[dɑj]British, Southern, Standard[dɑe̯]Australia
  1. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death.

    intransitive
  2. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death. followed by of as an indication of direct cause; general use

    intransitive
    He died of malaria.
  3. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death. followed by from as an indication of direct cause; general use, though somewhat more common in the context of medicine or the sciences

    intransitive
    He died from heart failure.
  4. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death. followed by for; often expressing wider contextual motivations, though sometimes indicating direct causes

    intransitive
    He died for the one he loved.
  5. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death. followed by with as an indication of direct cause

    archaic · intransitive
  6. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death. followed by to as an indication of direct cause (like from)

    intransitive · proscribed · sometimes
    I can't believe I just died to a turret!
  7. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death. followed by with as an indication of manner

    intransitive
    She died with dignity.
  8. To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death. to die in a certain form.

    intransitive
    Will I die a happy man?
  9. To (stop living and) undergo (a specified death).

    transitive
    He died a hero's death.
    They died a thousand deaths.
  10. To lose or be eliminated from a game, particularly with a deathlike animation.

    slang
    Whenever my brother dies, he ragequits.
  11. To yearn intensely.

    figuratively · intransitive
    I'm really dying to eat in that new restaurant.
    I'm dying for a piss.
  12. To be or become hated or utterly ignored or cut off, as if dead.

    idiomatic · intransitive · uncommon
    The day our sister eloped, she died to our mother.
  13. To become spiritually dead; to lose hope.

    figuratively · intransitive
    He died a little inside each time she refused to speak to him.
  14. To be mortified or shocked by a situation.

    colloquial · excessive · intransitive
    If anyone sees me wearing this ridiculous outfit, I'll die.
  15. To be so overcome with emotion or laughter as to be incapacitated.

    excessive · figuratively · intransitive
    When I found out my two favorite musicians would be recording an album together, I literally planned my own funeral arrangements and died.
  16. To stop working; to break down or otherwise lose "vitality".

    intransitive
    My car died in the middle of the freeway this morning.
    Sorry I couldn't call you. My phone died.
  17. To abort, to terminate (as an error condition).

    intransitive
  18. To expire at the end of the session of a legislature without having been brought to a vote.

    intransitive
    The proposed gas tax died after the powerful rural senator refused to let it out of committee.
  19. To perish; to cease to exist; to become lost or extinct.

  20. To sink; to faint; to pine; to languish, with weakness, discouragement, love, etc.

  21. To become indifferent; to cease to be subject.

    often
    to die to pleasure or to sin
  22. To disappear gradually in another surface, as where mouldings are lost in a sloped or curved face.

  23. To become vapid, flat, or spiritless, as liquor.

  24. To fail to evoke laughter from the audience.

    slang
    Then there was that time I died onstage in Montreal...
Where this word comes from

From Middle English deyen, probably from Old Norse deyja, from Proto-Germanic *dawjaną (“to die”). Displaced native Old English sweltan, whence Modern English swelt, and Old English steorfan, whence modern starve.

noun/daɪ/[däɪ̯]Received-Pronunciation, US[dɑj]British, Southern, Standard[dɑe̯]Australia
  1. The cubical part of a pedestal; a plinth.

  2. A device for cutting into a specified shape.

  3. A device used to cut an external screw thread. (Internal screw threads are cut with a tap.)

  4. A mold for forming metal or plastic objects.

  5. An embossed device used in stamping coins and medals.

  6. An oblong chip fractured from a semiconductor wafer engineered to perform as an independent device or integrated circuit.

    also · plural
  7. Any small cubical or square body.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English dee, from Old French de (Modern French dé), from Latin datum, from datus (“given”), the past participle of dō (“to give”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to lay out, to spread out”). Doublet of datum. Replaced Old English tasul, tesul (“die”), from Latin tessella (“die, cube”).

noun/daɪ/[däɪ̯]Received-Pronunciation, US[dɑj]British, Southern, Standard[dɑe̯]Australia
  1. An isohedral polyhedron, usually a cube, with numbers or symbols on each side and thrown in games of chance.

    Most dice are six-sided.
    I rolled the die and moved 2 spaces on the board.
  2. That which is, or might be, determined, by a throw of the die; hazard; chance.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English dee, from Old French de (Modern French dé), from Latin datum, from datus (“given”), the past participle of dō (“to give”), from Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- (“to lay out, to spread out”). Doublet of datum. Replaced Old English tasul, tesul (“die”), from Latin tessella (“die, cube”).

adv/daɪ/[däɪ̯]Received-Pronunciation, US[dɑj]British, Southern, Standard[dɑe̯]Australia
  1. per day

    not-comparable
    Clozapine 100 mg die a.m.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Latin die (“[in a] day”), locative of Latin dies (“day”).

noun/daɪ/[däɪ̯]Received-Pronunciation, US[dɑj]British, Southern, Standard[dɑe̯]Australia
  1. Obsolete spelling of dye.

    alt-of · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Variant spelling.

verb/daɪ/[däɪ̯]Received-Pronunciation, US[dɑj]British, Southern, Standard[dɑe̯]Australia
  1. Obsolete spelling of dye.

    alt-of · obsolete
Where this word comes from

Variant spelling.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.