Talking about death (Part 1)

On By Kate WoodfordIn Synonyms, the English language, Vocabulary

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by Kate Woodford

The theme of today’s blog post may not be exactly cheerful, but you might just find it useful. The subject is death and dying. Whether we like it or not, it’s something that we all talk about at some point in our lives.

The first thing to say is that, rather than use the terms ‘die’ and ‘death’, a lot of people prefer to use softer, less direct ways of saying these things. The most common alternative to ‘die’, for example, is the phrasal verb pass away. Pass on is a slightly less frequent variant of ‘pass away’ and in US English especially, the verb pass is sometimes used on its own with this meaning:

Sadly, her father passed away recently.

I didn’t know his mother had passed on.

My aunt passed last week.

The noun passing is sometimes used to mean ‘death’ though it is rather formal in tone:

We were all saddened to hear of her passing.

Another way that people avoid using the verb ‘die’, especially when reporting the death of a person who was close to them, is to say that they have lost someone. We also use the noun loss to refer to a person’s death. Again, these are gentler, less direct ways of saying these things.

Very sadly, she lost her husband last year. 

My sister was so ill, we thought we were going to lose her.

She was still mourning the loss of her husband.

Other near-synonyms for ‘die’ are generally used in particular contexts. For example, when someone dies suddenly in an accident or disaster, we may say they lose their life. More formally, they may be said to perish:

We remember all who lost their lives in that day’s tragic events.

Eighty-six people perished in the storm.

If someone dies of an illness, they may be said to succumb or succumb to it. (Confusingly, ‘succumb’ can also mean ‘to suffer badly from an illness’.) Again, this is a rather formal use:

Tragically, he succumbed to tuberculosis aged just 25.

Finally, when soldiers die while fighting, it is sometimes said that they fall. This is a rather literary or formal use. We also use the adjective fallen meaning ‘killed in a war’ and, similarly, the noun phrase the fallen:

A large window commemorates those who fell in World War 1.

It stands as a tribute to our fallen heroes.

There’s a memorial to the fallen of the Great War.

My next post on this subject will stay with this theme and will take a look at the idioms that we use to talk about death.

25 thoughts on “Talking about death (Part 1)”

  1. roland especel

    Dear Ms. Woodford,
    I am slightly disappointed by this post which provides a very lites amount of idiomatic sentences about this paramount topic.

    Best regards,

    R. Especel

    Reply
  2. Asmaa

    Amazing as always, it is interesting that the word die is used in other situations rather than death like with mobile without charge or to express earning to have something like saying doe tp eat pizza.Even the word death is used to express the vanishing of feeling or any feeling. Thank a bunch kate

    Reply
  8. Phan Mai Anh

    thanks for million . your working is very helpful for my english learning . i cant not know how to express my gratitude for your contribution =333333333333333333333

    Reply
  16. Vishal

    Always coming up roses, blazing a new trail, leaving nothing to be desired, and above all, exceeding expectations seems to be your second nature, and it is all I can say.

    Reply

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