as in deterioration
a gradual sinking and wasting away of mind or body
the decaying of the bone mass that is so regrettably common in elderly women
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in ramshackle
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in dying
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in rotting
to go through decomposition
the logs decayed on the rain forest floor the atom of plutonium decayed in the test chamber
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in deteriorating
to become worse or of less value
the restaurant's standards for food and service had decayed over the years
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in fading
to lose bodily strength or vigor
having reached her 80s, the woman could sense that her body was decaying
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Examples 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 decaying
Big Think, 10 Dec. 2024
According to Schrader, Gere initially wanted to take his decaying look much further than his director would allow.
—Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 6 Dec. 2024
Both spacecraft are powered by the heat from decaying plutonium that is converted into electricity.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 4 Dec. 2024
The goal of particle accelerators and colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, isn’t just to try to create the heavy, exotic particles that only live for a fraction-of-a-second before decaying, but to study those decays in gory detail.
—Big Think, 4 Dec. 2024
At the time, the wildly biodiverse island had no roads and little infrastructure—mostly the decaying vestiges of its years as a Portuguese colony and time as the largest cacao producer in the world.
—Ann Abel, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2024
Among them was Squanto, who found his way back to his home village of Patuxet, but it had been ravaged by a great plague and decaying bodies had to be moved for settlers to make the village that would one day become Plymouth.
—Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY, 28 Nov. 2024
A couple who owned a funeral home at two locations in Colorado pleaded guilty on Friday to multiple counts of corpse abuse, more than a year after 191 bodies were found decaying at their businesses in a horrific scene, the authorities said.
—Hank Sanders, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2024
As various nationalisms swept the decaying empires of Central and Eastern Europe, a Jewish nationalism seemed logical.
—Marc Tracy, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2024
Verb
Top quarks and antiquarks begin to disappear from this primordial particle-antiparticle soup, decaying away faster than the Universe can recreate them.
—Big Think, 10 Dec. 2024
According to Schrader, Gere initially wanted to take his decaying look much further than his director would allow.
—Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 6 Dec. 2024
Both spacecraft are powered by the heat from decaying plutonium that is converted into electricity.
—Ashley Strickland, CNN, 4 Dec. 2024
The goal of particle accelerators and colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, isn’t just to try to create the heavy, exotic particles that only live for a fraction-of-a-second before decaying, but to study those decays in gory detail.
—Big Think, 4 Dec. 2024
At the time, the wildly biodiverse island had no roads and little infrastructure—mostly the decaying vestiges of its years as a Portuguese colony and time as the largest cacao producer in the world.
—Ann Abel, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2024
Among them was Squanto, who found his way back to his home village of Patuxet, but it had been ravaged by a great plague and decaying bodies had to be moved for settlers to make the village that would one day become Plymouth.
—Kinsey Crowley, USA TODAY, 28 Nov. 2024
A couple who owned a funeral home at two locations in Colorado pleaded guilty on Friday to multiple counts of corpse abuse, more than a year after 191 bodies were found decaying at their businesses in a horrific scene, the authorities said.
—Hank Sanders, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2024
As various nationalisms swept the decaying empires of Central and Eastern Europe, a Jewish nationalism seemed logical.
—Marc Tracy, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for decaying
Noun
-
Coined as far back as 1854 by Henry David Thoreau in Walden, the idea of mental deterioration from trivial distractions has never been more relevant.Mark Travers, Forbes, 6 Dec. 2024
-
Tedeschi credits Park Road with heroic work on the Maysles footage, which was delivered to them in various stages of deterioration.Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 5 Dec. 2024
Adjective
-
Low-scudding, rain-laden clouds threaten to soak a group of Palestinian farmers huddling around their ramshackle sheep sheds as the Israel Defense Forces troops drive up to serve them eviction notices.Nic Robertson, CNN, 25 Nov. 2024
-
Maximus’s quest for revenge takes him from a ramshackle arena in Spain all the way to the Colosseum, fighting man and beast alike in the hopes of gaining vengeance and freedom.James Grebey, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2024
Verb
-
The wood was rotting, algae was growing and there were about 20 cats living inside, French, 27, tells CNBC Make It.Celia Fernandez,Mickey Todiwala, CNBC, 5 Dec. 2024
-
But part of it has to do with who’s using that technology to spread brain-rotting information.Megan Poinski, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024
Verb
-
In February 1966, after a rapidly deteriorating relationship with the NSW government, Utzon left the project.Michael Y. Park, Architectural Digest, 9 Dec. 2024
-
In a parallel development, Jordan's Interior Minister Mazin al-Faraya announced the closure of the Naseeb border crossing with Syria due to deteriorating security conditions.Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 6 Dec. 2024
Noun
-
Brain rot is thus a strikingly capacious term, enfolding the psychological and cognitive decay wrought by screen addiction, the bacteria-like content that feeds the addiction, and the argot of a generation for whom much of this content is made.Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2024
-
In the early to mid 20th century, older adults quite commonly developed such severe dental decay, necessitating complete dental extractions followed by dentures by the 7th or 8th decades of life.Nina Shapiro, Forbes, 3 Dec. 2024
Adjective
-
Griff's was a cozy space inside with a small, rickety wooden patio in the front and a larger one in the back.Brianna Griff, Chron, 13 Jan. 2023
-
Instead of rickety outdoor patios with plastic partitions, diners mostly ate in dining rooms.Nick Kindelsperger, Chicago Tribune, 28 Dec. 2022
Verb
-
Not only are his satellite states rejecting Kremlin influence, but the Russian economy is crumbling, lurching towards severe stagflation.Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, TIME, 10 Dec. 2024
-
The time has come to move upstream—to repair the crumbling bridge of American health rather than relying on the safety nets of downstream solutions.Robert Pearl, Forbes, 9 Dec. 2024
Verb
-
Additionally, stronger enforcement of existing sanctions and the introduction of tariffs on Russian goods, in addition to the goods of its backers — weakening Putin’s grip on power and the Russian economy.Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, TIME, 10 Dec. 2024
-
One concern Giordano brings up is rapamycin further weakening a person’s immune system.Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, Flow Space, 10 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near decaying
Cite this Entry
“Decaying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/decaying. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share