Word.ws English Dictionary

die

/daɪ/UK[däɪ̯]

die verb: to stop living; to become dead; to undergo death. Also the obsolete spelling of dye.

Verb

die (third-person singular simple present dies, present participle dying, simple past and past participle died)

  1. (intransitive) To stop living; to become dead; to undergo death.
    • Returne with ſpeed, time paſſeth ſwift away,
      Our life is fraile, and we may dye to day.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
    • The cheeks drop in; the body bows;
      Man dies: nor is there hope in dust: […]1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 54
    1. (intransitive) followed by of as an indication of direct cause; general use
      • He died of malaria.
      • "What did she die of, Work'us?" said Noah.
        "Of a broken heart, some of our old nurses told me," replied Oliver[…].1838, Boz [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], chapter 6, in Oliver Twist; […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC
    2. (intransitive) followed by from as an indication of direct cause; general use, though somewhat more common in the context of medicine or the sciences
      • He died from heart failure.
      • She lived several weeks; but afterwards she died from epilepsy, to which malady she had been previously subject.1865 March 4, British Medical Journal, page 213
    3. (intransitive) followed by for; often expressing wider contextual motivations, though sometimes indicating direct causes
      • He died for the one he loved.
      • Englishmen are dying for England, Americans are dying for America, Germans are dying for Germany, Russians are dying for Russia. There are now fifty or sixty countries fighting in this war.1961, Joseph Heller, Catch-22, Simon & Schuster, published 1999, page 232
    4. (archaic, intransitive) followed by with as an indication of direct cause
      • Therefore let Benedicke like covered fire, / Consume away in sighes, waste inwardly: / It were a better death, to die with mockes, / Which is as bad as die with tickling.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
      • And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year was very frequent in the land.1830, Joseph Smith, The Book of Mormon, Richards, published 1854, page 337
    5. (intransitive, proscribed, sometimes) followed by to as an indication of direct cause (like from)
      • I can't believe I just died to a turret!
      • Dr Thomas concluded she had died to a blow to the head, which led to a bleed on the brain, probably a fall and had hit her head hard on the wooden bedpost, as there was blood on the bedpost.2014, S. J. Groves, The Darker Side to Dr Carter, page 437
    6. (intransitive, still current) followed by with as an indication of manner
      • She died with dignity.
    7. (intransitive) to die in a certain form.
      • Will I die a happy man?
  2. (transitive) To (stop living and) undergo (a specified death).
    • He died a hero's death.
    • They died a thousand deaths.
  3. (slang) To lose or be eliminated from a game, particularly with a deathlike animation.
    • Whenever my brother dies, he ragequits.
    • Of course, Nazis are not present in this game. Instead, we have animals that will try to cover you with dirt. As soon as you get too dirty, you will die.1995, “Slobzone”, in Coming Soon! magazine (video game review), archived from the original on 08 Feb 2023
  4. (figuratively, intransitive) To yearn intensely.
    • I'm really dying to eat in that new restaurant.
    • I'm dying for a piss.
  5. (idiomatic, intransitive, uncommon) To be or become hated or utterly ignored or cut off, as if dead.
    • The day our sister eloped, she died to our mother.
    • "My dad […] beat us until we couldn't sit down." […] "What about your mother?" […] "She's alive. […] My aunt visits her once a year, but I don't ask about my mother. She died to me the day she chose my father over protecting us." Luke's voice hitched with emotion.2015, Emily Duvall, Inclusions, page 150
  6. (figuratively, intransitive) To become spiritually dead; to lose hope.
    • He died a little inside each time she refused to speak to him.
    • Do you know that I went down / To the ground / Landed on both my broken-hearted knees... / […]I didn't even cry / 'Cause pieces of me had already died2011, Ingrid Michaelson, “Ghost”, in Human Again
  7. (colloquial, excessive, intransitive) To be mortified or shocked by a situation.
    • If anyone sees me wearing this ridiculous outfit, I'll die.
  8. (excessive, figuratively, intransitive) To be so overcome with emotion or laughter as to be incapacitated.
    • When I found out my two favorite musicians would be recording an album together, I literally planned my own funeral arrangements and died.
    • I literally died when I saw that.1976, an anchorman on Channel Five in California, quoted in Journal and Newsletter [of the] California Classical Association, Northern Section
  9. (intransitive) To stop working; to break down or otherwise lose "vitality".
    • My car died in the middle of the freeway this morning.
    • Sorry I couldn't call you. My phone died.
  10. (intransitive) To abort, to terminate (as an error condition).
  11. (intransitive) To expire at the end of the session of a legislature without having been brought to a vote.
    • The proposed gas tax died after the powerful rural senator refused to let it out of committee.
  12. To perish; to cease to exist; to become lost or extinct.
    • letting the secret die within his own breast1714 September 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “TUESDAY, September 15, 1714”, in The Spectator, number 594; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator...
    • Great deeds cannot die.1847, Alfred Tennyson, “(please specify the page number, or |part=Prologue, I to VII, or conclusion)”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC
Show 5 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. To sink; to faint; to pine; to languish, with weakness, discouragement, love, etc.
    • But it came to passe in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 25:37
    • When the truth is found to be lies / And all the joy within you dies / Don't you want somebody to love? / Don't you need somebody to love?1965, Darby Slick, “Somebody to Love”, in Surrealistic Pillow, performed by Jefferson Airplane, published 1967
  2. (often) To become indifferent; to cease to be subject.
    • to die to pleasure or to sin
  3. To disappear gradually in another surface, as where mouldings are lost in a sloped or curved face.
  4. To become vapid, flat, or spiritless, as liquor.
  5. (slang) To fail to evoke laughter from the audience.
    • Then there was that time I died onstage in Montreal...

Noun (1)

die (plural dies)

  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. (also, plural, semiconductors) An oblong chip fractured from a semiconductor wafer engineered to perform as an independent device or integrated circuit.
    • The number of dies per wafer is basically the area of the wafer divided by the area of the die.2002, John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Elsevier, →ISBN, page 19
    • Once the wafer has undergone the wafer-probe test, it is separated into individual dice by sawing or scribing and breaking. The dice are visually inspected, sorted, and readied for assembly into packages.2009, Paul R. Gray, Analysis and Design of Analog Integrated Circuits, 5th edition, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 159
  7. Any small cubical or square body.
    • Some young creatures have learnt their letters and syllables, and the pronouncing and spelling of words, by having them pasted or written upon many little flat tablets or dies.1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC

Noun (2)

die (plural dice or (nonstandard) dies)

  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. (obsolete) That which is, or might be, determined, by a throw of the die; hazard; chance.
    • […]For th'equall die of warre he well did know.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 13, page 249

Adverb

die (not comparable)

  1. per day
    • Clozapine 100 mg die a.m.

Noun (3) capitalized: DIE

DIE (uncountable)

  1. (abbreviation, derogatory, humorous, initialism) Initialism of diversity, inclusion, and equity.

Also used as

die is also the obsolete spelling of dye.

die meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

die in Hindi

to stop living
मरना marnā
polyhedron used in games of chance
पासा pāsā

die in Tamil

to stop living
இற iṟa, சா cā

die in Marathi

to stop living
मरणे marṇe

die in Urdu

to stop living
مَرْنا marnā, وَفات پانا vafāt pānā, ہَلاک ہونا halāk honā
More languagesFewer languages
die in Bengali
মরা mora
die in Telugu
చనిపోవు canipōvu, మరణించు maraṇiñcu, పరమపదించు paramapadiñcu, కాలం చేయు kālaṁ cēyu
die in Malayalam
മരിക്കുക marikkuka, ചാകുക cākuka, ചാവുക cāvuka, അച്ച് accŭ
die in Kannada
ಸಾಯು sāyu
die in Punjabi
ਮਰਨਾ marnā, مَرْنا marnā
die in Gujarati
મરવું marvũ
die in Odia
ମରିବା maribā
die in Sanskrit
म्रियते mriyáte, मरति marati
die in Sinhala
මැරෙනවා mærenawā
die in Assamese
মৰ mor, ঢুকা dhuka
die in Nepali
मर्नु marnu
die in Pashto
مړل mṛə́l, مړه کېدل mṛə́kedə́l
die in Tagalog
matay, dado
die in Arabic
مَاتَ māta, تُوُفِّيَ tuwuffiya, زَهْر اَلطَّاوِلَة zahr aṭ-ṭāwila, زَهْر اَلنَّرْد zahr an-nard
die in Malay
mati, meninggal, dadu
die in Indonesian
mati, meninggal
die in Persian
طاس tâs
die in Thai
ตาย dtaai, เสียชีวิต sǐia-chii-wít, ลูกเต๋า lûuk-dtǎo, บาศก์ bàat
die in Vietnamese
chết, mất, qua đời, từ vong
die in Myanmar
သေ se, ဆုံး hcum:, ကွယ်လွန် kwailwan, အန် an
Dhivehi
މަރުވަނީ maruvanī
Dzongkha
ཤི shi

Examples of die in a sentence

  • My battery died and my charger was at home.
  • In 1971 or 72, Mom's sister Carolyn Weimer died of breast cancer.2000, Stephen King, On Writing, Pocket Books, published 2002, page 85:
  • "Or all of them will die from the plague.2007, Frank Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Sandworms of Dune, Tor, published 2007, page 191:
  • Less than three days later, Johnson lapsed into a coma in his jail cell and died for lack of insulin.2003, Tara Herivel, Paul Wright, editors, Prison Nation, Routledge, page 187:
  • Thus he died a small death, in order to benefit the living.2019, Lou Marinoff, On Human Conflict: The Philosophical Foundations of War and Peace, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 452:

All 40 example sentences with die

Synonyms of die

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of die

Forms of die

Verb
third-person singular presentdies
present participledying
past participledied
pastdied
second-person singular present (archaic)diest
second-person singular past (archaic)diedst
third-person singular present (archaic)dieth
alternative form (obsolete)dye
Noun
pluraldies
pluraldice
plural (nonstandard)dies

Past tense of die: died

Plural of die: dies

Origin of die

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.

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”).

Variant spelling.

Words formed from die

Phrases with die

36 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with die

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about die

What does die mean?
Die means to stop living; to become dead; to undergo death.
What is die in Hindi?
Die in Hindi is मरना (marnā), पासा (pāsā). See Die meaning in Hindi.
How do you use die in a sentence?
My battery died and my charger was at home.
What part of speech is die?
Die can be a verb, a noun or an adverb.
How do you pronounce die?
Die is pronounced /daɪ/.
What is the past tense of die?
The past tense of die is died.

Words near die in the dictionary

  1. didymus
  2. didynamian
  3. didynamous
  4. didynamy
  5. didysprosium
  6. die
  7. die a death
  8. die a thousand deaths
  9. die and go to heaven
  10. die away
  11. die back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: die (page history and authors); DIE (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-die.ogg.

Cite this entry: “die.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/die. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.